mommy
by shinycry
Summary: Iruka's taking care of Gaara whose been turned into a child for some unknown reason. He also has team 7 helping him out. But are they helping or bothering him more? shounenai KakaIru and SasuNaru...maybe more
1. Default Chapter

**Shinycry**- hi there! The story is about Iruka taking care of Gaara who happens to turn into a chibi! Does he have what it takes to show chibi Gaara love and affection, which the chibi so desperately needs? He'll also have Team 7 helping him out, which means he'll also have Kakashi hanging around him. KakaIru and SasuNaru. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer**- shinycry does not own Naruto.

**Ch. 1 "Mommy?"**

'I swear if I ever hear someone say Chuunins have it easy, I'm going to sick 30 ten year olds on them' Iruka thought tiredly before sitting down on his chair in the mission room. Today is his turn to make sure the reports are properly done, turned in, and so on. Although he really wishes it wasn't his turn but someone else's. If it were up to him, he would be heading home right now and into his nice warm bed where he'll sleep the remaining day away. But unfortunately for him, he can't do that right now.

It didn't help that he had a rough morning with Konohamane and his 'followers' today. When they thought he wasn't paying attention, they tried their best to sneak out through the door or by using the open windows which he had to close eventually. At one point, he considered putting bars on those windows and door but had to calmly remind himself this is a school and not a prison He lost count how many times they tired 'escaping'. Call him crazy but that might be the reason for his current headache which is refusing to leave him alone. No one likes stalker headaches. 'Kids these days…in my day, we were never that bad' the thought makes Iruka feel really old and dull.

Much to Iruka's utter relief, the remainder of the day is pretty much uneventful. Earlier on he got lucky when another Chuunin, who's also station in the room with him, offered him some aspirin he had on him. Iruka gratefully thanked the other man over and over until the other Chuunin patted his head with a smile. It's not until around midafternoon when two other Chuunins come in to take their post. He gathers his things after he greets them with a polite 'Hello'. As he's about to leave, one of the Chuunin stops him.

"Ah, Iruka-sensei, if it's not too much trouble could you please give this stack of papers to Tsunade-sama for me?"

Smiling, "No, it's not too much trouble. I'll make sure she gets it."

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei. I owe you one!"

"That's quite alright. I'm heading in Tsunade-sama's direction anyway, so it's really no problem" with a bright smile on his face and the stack of papers tuck neatly under his arm, Iruka leaves towards Hokage's direction.

It's not until he's a few feet away when he hears a small child crying and it sounds like it's coming from within Tsunade's office. "Why is there a crying child in her office?" a confuse Iruka says out loud. It's not like he thinks Tsunade doesn't like children, it's just she kinda of avoids them. 'Maybe she's babysitting…?' he silently thinks.

Looking under his arm at the stack of papers, he signs and knocks on the door. He might as well get this over with now and hope he doesn't get saddle with babysitting. Once he receives a "Come in!" he opens and closes the door quietly. No need to be slamming doors with a crying child is present.

Once he turns around, he's in for a great surprise. Actually, he's more in shock then surprise. He has to blink a couple of times to make sure he's not seeing or imagining things. After a moment of blinking and mouth gapping open and shut, he realizes what he's seeing is, in fact, very real. Here in the Hokage's office is Team 7, along with their sensei, and a small child who's crying loudly on Tsunade's lap. However what really makes this all a shocking view is the small crying child who just so happens to look a lot like…Gaara. The child's red flaming hair and those emerald eyes. Even the mark on the small child's forehead is the same mark as Gaara's. There's no mistake this small child is Gaara.

Or maybe Gaara has a younger brother no one ever knew about until now? It's possible and makes much more sense than what Iruka's thinking at the moment. Regardless he's still not prepared for the slight in front of him. A crying child who looks a lot like Gaara sitting on Tsunade's lap. Iruka notices she looks heavenly annoyed and Team 7 looks panicky while their sensei looks…well, bored. Iruka's not too sure about that but that's what he's getting from the older man. How he can look bored while there's a crying child is beyond Iruka.

Oh wait, little Gaara seems to have stop crying and his staring straight at him. His emerald eyes openly staring at him. This startles him as well as the others. Although for the others, it's more like their just glad the kid isn't crying anymore.

"Look! Gaara stopped crying! Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore!" this earns Naruto a hit to the head by Sakura who says, "It was your fault to begin with, you idiot!"

Iruka silently walks up to the group, who doesn't really seem to notice him at all expect for little Gaara who continues to openly stare at him. Okay, that answers one question. The little child is Gaara but why is he a two/three year old? Just what happened? He decides to make his appearance known to the others, "Um, do I even want to know what's going on here?"

All eyes turn to look at the newcomer, and upon seeing who it is, Naruto runs straight into him. "IRUKA-SENSEI!" Apparently Naruto doesn't seem to notice the stack of papers Iruka has under his arm because when he hugs his favorite teacher, those said papers get thrown into the air only to land everywhere. Tsunade and Sakura twitch their eyes while Sasuke and Kakashi roll their eyes at the mess Naruto created.

After Iruka successfully manages to pry Naruto's hands off of him, he begins to pick up the papers. "Naruto, I know it's been awhile since we last saw each other but really."

Naruto looks down at the mess he caused and apologetically says "I'm sorry Iruka-sensei…" He then produces to help pick up the papers as well, shoulders hunched down. Iruka smiles a fond smile at Naruto and ruffles his hair, silently saying it's okay causing Naruto to give him one of his goofy grins.

During the whole exchange, little Gaara doesn't take his eyes off the Chuunin. He looks at him with teary eyes and a lost look on his face. However something flashes in those small green eyes. Making up his mind, he struggles off Tsunade's lap and walks right up to Iruka with a hopeful look. Sakura's about to grab him and place him back on Tsunade's lap but a hand on her shoulder stops her. Looking up, she sees Tsunade silently telling her to 'wait and watch'. Nodding her head reluctantly, she turns around to see something astonishing happen. For chibi Gaara now stands in front of a crouching Iruka whose still picking up papers off the floor. He stretches a small hand to grab a sleeve so he could get the older man's attention.

When Iruka feels a slight pull on his sleeve, he turns in time to find chibi Gaara trying to hug him the best he can with his small body. The little one struggles to get his small arms around Iruka's waist. Although it should shock Iruka, he finds himself smiling instead because it's too cute. Iruka really can't turn away from any small child, even a chibi Gaara.

"…mommy…?" teary green eyes meant soft brown, slightly larger than usual eyes. Behind them, soft gasps and the sound of paper hitting the floor again can be heard in the background.

Iruka does the first thing that comes to his mind; he picks up the small child into his arms where he lightly hugs him. He just can't help it. His little face for some odd reason remains him so much of Naruto's teary eye look when he was younger. Once he thought about it, Naruto and Gaara are a lot alike. Both having to grow up with a demon inside of them and having no one to love them because of that. He always wished he could have taken better care of a younger Naruto but couldn't because he, too, was young at the time. But now it's different. He's fully capable of taking care of someone who needs him. Quickly making up his mind, Iruka smiles and responds to the child softly "Yes?" Although the 'mommy' part got him really confuse, he can at least be some sort of caregiver or something for the time being.

Just one word is enough to lullaby the small boy into placing his face against the warm neck and closing his eyes peacefully. Chibi Gaara doesn't know who this person is but he likes him, likes him enough to call him 'mommy'. He's not too sure what this words means but it just…feels right to call this person it. He remembers a kid once calling someone 'mommy' and that person hugging the small child with a bright smile on her face. 'Mommy' must mean someone whose kind, soft and very warm because this is how his 'mommy' feels- kind, soft, and so very warm.

Iruka looks at the already sleeping child for a moment, a small smile on his pale features, before looking up to meet several shock faces. 'I guess I can't blame them. This is Gaara we're talking about here but I don't think he'll cause any harm the way he is now. At least I hope so. He just needs someone to care for him especially in this state'.

Kakashi just stares at the way Iruka holds the child; it reminds him a mother holding her child close to her heart. Maybe that's why Gaara choose him to be his 'mommy' but how Gaara could have possible know Iruka's a kind person is beyond him. Kakashi knows Iruka can sometimes enter his mother-hen mode when he sees any child hurt or is around Naruto. 'This is going to be interesting to say the lease.'

Naruto walks up to Iruka to look at the sleeping chibi in his arms. "He's asleep" Naruto looks up to meet Iruka in the eye, "Are you really going to let him call you mommy, Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka doesn't know what to say, he speechless. He's pretty sure he's not exactly qualified to be someone's mother. How Gaara came to call him 'mommy' is really beyond him. All he can do his nod his head slowly. He then notices the worry look in Naruto's eyes. "It's okay Naruto. I don't think he'll hurt me or anything."

"But Iruka-sensei, you never know. He has a demon in him. What if it comes out and tries to hurt you? It might be hard for chibi Gaara to control it, I should know." Naruto can't help but worry about his favorite teacher. Iruka is way too nice to get hurt and toss around like some ragdoll. No. Naruto's going to make sure something like that never happens to his beloved sensei.

After a moment of silence, Tsunade finally decides it's time to speak up, "And that is why I'll be assigning Team 7 to assist Iruka-sensei who, as of right now, is Gaara's care-taker. Don't worry about your classes, Iruka-sensei, I'll have someone take over them for the time being. I want you to be Gaara's care-taker or 'mommy' if you prefer 24/7, show him what it means to be love and all the other stuff. As for Team 7, you guys will be helping out Iruka whenever you guys aren't on any missions. Don't worry I'll have it to where only two of you will be needed to accomplish them, so that Iruka won't be left alone. Any questions?"

Sakura raises her hand and when she sees Tsunade nod her head, asks "Why are you assigning Team 7 and not some Jounins instead? Not that I don't want to help Iruka-sensei or anything." Kakashi and Sasuke turn their eyes back to the Hokage, wanting to know for themselves. Naruto, on the other hand, is just too happy to really care. 'Yea, now I'll be able to look after Iruka-sensei to make sure he doesn't get hurt!' Naruto happily thinks, his face pressed up against one of Iruka's arms as he looks at chibi Gaara sleeping.

Tsunade titles her head and answers calmly, "Well, besides the fact it was one of your own teammate's fault as well as that said teammate is probably going to be bugging me until I gave him the 'Okay' to look after Iruka. Oh and I think it's a great way for Kakashi to make a new friend! Other than those three reasons, it's also because you're the only ones available at the moment." Four heads hit the floor after her explanation.

Sasuke can't help but think about how all those are lame excuses. She should have been honest and said it's because they all know Iruka-sensei so it makes things easier and smoother for everyone involve. Not because everyone else is busy and their sensei needs to make a new friend! Sakura's thoughts are very similar to Sasuke's.

Kakashi's thoughts are a whole different matter then his students. 'What does she mean I need to make a new friend? Is she talking about Iruka? For her information we're already friends…okay, not really. We know just other's names and I'm currently teaching some of his ex-students. But still! That old hag, I'll get her for this. Although, I guess, it might not be so bad if Iruka and I become good friends or something. I do have his ex-students after all. Not too bad on the eye either…'

After listing to Tsunade explanation, Iruka raises an eyebrow. The only person who would bug Tsunade would be Naruto which means he had something to do with Gaara current state.

"Naruto, exactly what did you do to make Gaara like this?" Iruka looks down at Naruto's blond hair. He gets the feeling he might be better off not knowing however he needs to know what happen. Just how did Gaara get like this?

Naruto nervously looks up at expecting eyes. Gulping, he replies sheepishly "Well, you see…."

**TBC**

**shinycry**- thank you for reading! Please review and tell me if was good or crappy! As long as there is one review who wants me to continue then I will.


	2. Well

**Shinycry**- hello there! Thank you for your reviews and those who just read! Here's Chapter 2 for you folks!  
**Disclaimer**- Shinycry does not own Naruto

**Chapter 2: "Well…"**

"Naruto, exactly what did you do to make Gaara like this?" Iruka looks down at Naruto's blond hair. He gets the feeling he might be better off not knowing however he needs to know what happen. Just how did Gaara get like this?

Naruto nervously looks up at expecting eyes. Gulping, he replies sheepishly "Well, you see…."

_**Flashback**_

"Oh man, I don't even know why I bother waking up so early when I could be dreaming of Sakura and mine's wedding! Instead I have to wait here at the bridge with Sakura and Sasuke for our lazy ass sensei who's probably going to show up two hours late! And that's if we're lucky…" Naruto mumbles under his breath as he kicks a rock hard into the air which accidently hits someone right on the forehead.

"Ouch!" Naruto looks up to see who he hit. A few feet away from him, is an old geezer who's carrying something that looks twice his size and weight. Running over to him, Naruto offers a sheepish grin.

"Ah, I didn't mean to hit you with that rock old man! You okay?" Naruto stares at the older man who's rubbing a red spot that's forming on his forehead.

"Er, I'll live."

"You sure, you look pretty old to me."

"Why you little-"

"HEY! I don't want to fight you old man!"

"Why? You afraid you're going to lose to me" the old man balls his fist in front of him, ready for a fight.

'Is he serious?' Naruto thinks. "Don't make me laugh old man! It looks like you can barely lift that thing of yours."

"Oh, and you think you can? Well, then it's decided! You're going to carry my bag until we're at the front gate of the village. Then I'll take it from there."

Naruto, not being one to turn down a challenge, agrees, "I can carry it with no sweat, give it here! But I'm only going to carry it until we hit the front gate. I got places to go and people to meet."

The old man nods his head as he slips the bag off and gives it to Naruto to carry. They walk in silence down the dirt road towards the front gate. Only one thought runs through Naruto's mind during the whole trip, 'How the hell did this old geezer manage to carry this damn thing! It weighs a freaking ton!'

"Ah, we're here. You can give me back my bag now. As a thank you gift, I'll give you something" the old man smiles at him.

'Did he forget I hit him with a rock in the forehead? Oh well, I'm not going to remind him if he's going to give me something!' Naruto thinks excitingly as he returns the bag over to its owner. The said owner opens it up and starts looking for something inside. After a few minutes, where Naruto's telling the old geezer to hurry it up, the old man finds what he's looking for.

"Here it is! It's a scroll."

"Oh, what does it do?" Naruto's eyes grow big, looking at the scroll in front of him. 'Maybe it's something really powerful! So powerful that I can kick Sasuke's butt and make Sakura fall in love with me!' Naruto's thoughts are interrupted as the old man speaks up.

"Why don't you find out? Well, good luck young man" with that the old man's gone.

"Bye and thanks old man!" Naruto turns around and starts walking towards the bridge, all the while reading the scroll that was given to him.

_**End of Flashback**_

There's silence in room as several pair of eyes look at blond hair boy expectedly, waiting for him to continue. After a few more minutes of nothing, Iruka tries again "Naruto that still doesn't explain why Gaara is like this. Why don't you try explaining _that_ to me?"

Naruto starts to tap his two index fingers against each other in a nervous gesture, looking everywhere but at his former sensei's face. He knows if he tells he's going to be in a lot of trouble. 'Plus Iruka-sensei is so scary when he's mad…' the fox-boy silently thinks.

Seeing her teammate in 'distress', she decides to 'help' him out. "Well Iruka-sensei, after the mission was over we decided to get some lunch. While we were walking down the road, we spotted Gaara sitting on a tree branch alone. Naruto, over here, started saying something about how he wanted to show off this new jutsu he learned. Not only that, Iruka-sensei, but to find out exactly what he learned in this new jutsu of his." Sakura takes a deep breath before continuing. "There was a poof of smoke and when it cleared up, Gaara was nowhere to be seen. All we got was a sound of a small child crying and Gaara's clothes on the tree branch. It was Kakashi who went up to investigate and found a small crying Gaara hiding under a pile of his clothing" Sakura gestures towards the sleeping Gaara. "And then to top it all off, the scroll burned up after Naruto finished performing it!" By now Inner Sakura was blowing flames out of her mouth.

Iruka was right, he was better off not knowing. Imagine if he didn't have to give Tsunade some papers, he could have been in his bed right now. "Naruto, what were you thinking? Doing a jutsu on Gaara, who was minding his own business? A jutsu you had no idea what it was capable of doing. Did you even stop to think the jutsu could have seriously injured him?"

Iruka tries his best to keep his voice down, not wanting to wake up the sleepy chibi in his arms. He's able to calm himself down by combing through Gaara's hair with his fingers, gently. The softness of Gaara's hair amazes and surprises him. But what surprise him more are the soft sniffles he hears coming right next to him. Looking down, he sees Naruto's eyes watering up. The sight makes his heart drop. He didn't mean to raise his voice at Naruto. He just wanted the younger boy to be aware of the consequence behind his action. Plus Iruka always hated when Naruto cried because tears simply don't go with his cheerful face.

Iruka gently maneuvers Gaara to his hip, allowing him to need only one arm to hold him. This gives him the opportunity to wipe away the tears that are now falling freely from Naruto's face. "Shh Naruto. It's okay, don't cry…"

"You're…but you're *sniff*…angry at me…*sniff* I'm sorry! You're right, I know what I did was really wrong…I should have *sniff* thought it out more" Naruto wipes his tears away with his sleeve. His eyes widen when he feels himself being drag into a warm hug. This makes him question whether or not if Iruka is still angry at him. When you're angry at someone, you don't go hugging them, right? After realizing that, he hugs Iruka the best he can without disturbing a sleepy small Gaara.

This makes Iruka smile. He knows when it comes to Naruto, it's always better to show him because actions speak louder than words.

A peaceful sleeping expression covers Gaara's chibi face, Naruto hold a bright smile with his eyes closed looking content, and the tenderly Iruka smiling lovely at the boys in his arms could only be summed up in one word: beautiful.

The other people in the room half expect pure white wings to sprout out of Iruka who so openly and willingly allow two demon possessed kids in and make people remember they're still just children. And not the beast everyone keeps on thinking they are.

Kakashi and Sasuke are having a hard time trying not to smile while the other two had no problem showing it whatsoever especially Sakura. She even squeaks out loud. As Tsunade continues to watch the scene in front of her, an idea pops into her head. A smile gracing upon her face as the she speaks "Iruka-sensei, I want to know if you have enough room at your place for them if not I can arrang-"

Iruka turns his head when he hears his name being called. Placing his chin on soft red hair, he answers the question before the Hokage can finish it. "No, that's okay. It's true we can't all fit comfortable in my apartment but I have a house that has more than enough room for everyone here…Gaara, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, and me."

After seeing the obvious question in their eyes, Iruka speaks up again, "I felt really odd living in a big house all by myself so I moved into a small apartment."

"Um, Iruka-sensei…why didn't you sell the house?" Sakura polity asks. All she gets is a smile and Iruka lightly shaking his head for an answer. Sakura wants to ask what that means but feels like she should drop it. The rest of them know not to pry into things that are not their business and left it alone as well.

Tsunade decides to change the subject, "Very well then. I want you, Sasuke, and you, Kakashi, to pack some clothes because you two will be staying with Iruka until I say otherwise." Right off the bat both Naruto and Sakura shout, "What about me?" They both get a 'shh!' from Iruka who gestures towards the sleeping Gaara. Both Naruto and Sakura blush and look at the ground sheepishly.

"Honestly Naruto. You were going to pack your stuff anyway and go to Iruka's house no matter what I said. As for you Sakura, I won't place you in a house full of boys. That and your mother might have something to say about it. Anyway tomorrow I want you to come and pick up your mission, Kakashi. I'll make sure it's one where Naruto and Sasuke can both handle on their own without you being present. I, on the other hand, will be looking up this jutsu and see if I can reverse it. By any chance Naruto, did the old man say where he was heading? Or did he give you a name or anything?"

Naruto shakes his, "No, and I didn't ask. Sorry…" Iruka pats his head.

"Alright then, are there any more questions?" when she sees them shake their heads a 'no', she dismiss them with a, "I'm counting on you guys to do a good job." She knows they have questions but she at a lost as well. They're just going to have to all play it by ear for the time being.

_**Outside the building **_

As they walk outside, a thought occurs to Naruto making him stop walking all together. When Iruka notices Naruto's sudden stop, he asks "Is there something wrong?"

"Well, I just thought of something. Who's going to be Gaara's dad?"

**TBC**

**Shinycry**- sorry if the chapter seemed short, I'll try to work on that. Anyway, who's going to be chibi Gaara's father! Who? Who? Well, actually it's kind of obvious who it's going to be but oh well. Please feel free to suggest something to me and I'll see if I can work it in. Thanks you again KageOni1 for your suggestion which will start in the next chapter. Thank you readers and please review, as long as I get one review that says to continue then I'll be more then happy to obey.


	3. what

**Shinycry**- thank you for your reviews and to those who just read! Sorry for not updating this fic sooner, my bad. I want to say thanks for the people who reviewed! On to the fic!  
**Disclaimer**- shinycry does not own Naruto

**Chapter 3**

As they walk outside, a thought occurs to Naruto, bringing him to a halt. When Iruka notices Naruto's sudden stop, he asks "Is there something wrong?"

"Well, I just thought of something. Who's going to be Gaara's dad?"

"…huh?" Iruka stands there dumbfound, not quite getting what Naruto is asking.

Naruto continues on, "He chose you to be his mommy, so he's probably going to choose someone to be his daddy. I'm just wondering who. The only other adult who's going to be hanging around him is going to Kakashi-sensei. But if you ask me, Kakashi-sensei is so not father material."

"Oh, you think I'm not father material? I'm hurt" a voice says from above Naruto. Slowly looking up to meet an eye staring down at him, Naruto jumps in the air with a 'yep'. Naruto's yep is loud enough to wake up little Gaara, who yawns and starts rubbing his eyes with his tiny fist.

"Look what you did? You woke him up Naruto!" Sakura starts smacking Naruto around, trying desperately to get some common sense into the boy. Naruto starts to run in circles as Sakura chases after him, every now and then getting a good whack on Naruto's head.

"OW! That hurts, please OW! Stop that OW! Sakura!"

Already use to the scene in front of him, Sasuke turns his attention to his sensei. "Do _you_ think you're father material, Kakashi-sensei?" Sasuke asks.

Kakashi's cheerful reply is, "Why do you think I have no kids?"

Sasuke rolls his eyes, not at all surprise by the answer. Actually he would have been somewhat scared if his sensei did say 'yes' to his question. For once in his life, he agrees with Naruto on their sensei so not being father material.

Meanwhile, Iruka greets Gaara with a warm smile and it gets warmer when Gaara yawns again. 'So cute…' he thinks. "Did you have a nice nap, Ga-chan?" Gaara nods and turns his head to see what the other people were doing. To make it easier for Gaara, Iruka shifts him to his hip instead of having him press up against his chest.

"You know, Iruka, you're good mother material. You sure have the hips for it." Kakashi said as he petted Gaara's head like he was one of his dogs. Gaara looked up to give Kakashi a sour expression before using his small hands to push off the offending hand on his head.

"Leave him alone Kakashi, he just woke up from a nap." Iruka blushes as he slaps Kakashi's hand away which was teasing a puffy Gaara who's now glaring at Kakashi.

"See what I mean, you're so mother material. What a shame you weren't born a woman" now that would have earned Kakashi a kick to the ass by Naruto if he didn't side-step.

After Naruto picks himself off the dirt, he turns to look at Kakashi with angry eyes. "Stop picking on Iruka-sensei and Gaara! There's no way Gaara would chose you to be his dad, bastard-sensei!"

"Naruto, language!"

"Sorry."

"But you know Naruto, Gaara does have a father as well as a sister and a brother." Sakura says. Ever since Tsunade put Iruka in charge of caring for Gaara, Sakura had some questions on her mind she was curious about. But she knows she's going to have to wait until the right opportunity presents itself to ask them.

"Besides, Gaara chose Iruka-sensei to be his mother right when he saw him. As for Kakashi-sensei, Gaara has been around him for a couple of hours now and has made no indication of him wanting Kakashi-sensei to be his father, because like I said before, he already has a father." Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi make a 'oh, that's right' face.

Whenever Sakura mentioned Gaara's father, Gaara would tighten his hold on his mother's vest, which didn't go unnoticed by Iruka. The first instinct that hit Iruka was to comfort the child in his arms. "Ga-chan, what's wrong? You can tell me."

"Me no like my daddy, he's mean. He never let big sister and big brother play with me, he let no one play with me." Gaara hugs Iruka with his small arms and buries his face into Iruka's neck. "But me wanted to play with someone…" If it wasn't for the closeness, Iruka wouldn't have been able to hear the small whisper of loneliness which just broke his heart to hear.

'To have your own father be the one to isolate you is beyond human. What was he thinking doing that to his own son? Obvious to him blood is not thicker than water…' Iruka thought bitterly. "Shh, it's okay Ga-chan. Don't worry about him, you're with me and I'll always play with you. Plus look, you also have Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi to play with you. Right?" Iruka places his hand on little Gaara's head and with his shoulder, encourages him to look at the others.

"Yeah I'll play with you, Gaara! We'll have so much fun together!" Naruto cheerfully says as he jumps on Iruka's right side, opposite to were Iruka is holding Gaara.

This surprises Iruka, knocking him off balance which causes him to stumble forward a bit. If it wasn't for the body in front of him and the arms around his waist, he would have probably squashed poor Gaara.

"Er, thanks Kakashi. I, um, appreciate you catching us and yeah" Iruka really doesn't know what else to say.

"No problem."

Sasuke and Sakura stare at the odd scene in front of them. It looks like Kakashi is embracing Iruka but not really because Gaara's in the middle, trying his best to separate Kakashi from his mother. Plus you had Naruto hanging off of Iruka's back, sticking out his tongue to his sensei saying, "You can let go now, Kakashi-sensei. Hands off!"

"Just making sure he has his balance back which you threw off, brat."

"Sure Kakashi-sensei" Naruto rolls his eyes. Gaara smiles once Kakashi got his hands off his mother and proceeds to hug his mother, looking quite content to have him back to himself.

"I think Gaara here has a mother complex." Kakashi could have sworn Gaara was laughing at him in the inside.

"You're just being silly now, Kakashi."

"Don't you mean stupid instead of silly, Iruka-sensei?"

"Naruto!"

"Sorry!"

"Anyway, it's going to be dinner time soon and you three still need to pack some of your belongings to take to my house." Iruka thinks about it for minute before coming up with a plan. "How about this, Gaara, Sakura, and I will do some grocery shopping" he pauses to see if that's okay with the pink hair girl who smiles a 'yes', before continuing, "while you three guys go get what you need to stay over for a couple of weeks. We'll meet back up here in an hour. This should be more than enough time for you guys." Naruto and Sasuke both know that sentence is more for Kakashi than them.

"From here, I'll take you to where you'll be staying for a while. Does anyone have any questions?"

They all shake their heads in responds, "Good. Shall we get going, Sakura? Maybe we'll get an outfit or two for Gaara. Even though I'm pretty sure I have some clothes already that should fit him nicely."

Sakura's eyes lit up at the thought of shopping for little Gaara, who didn't really seem to care so long as he could be near his mother. "Yes Iruka-sensei! Let's go." And off they went.

Kakashi and Sasuke were about to do the same thing in taking off when Naruto stops them with one of his questions.

"Do you think Iruka-sensei well mind a sandbox in his backyard for Gaara?"

**TBC**

**Shinycry**- I know I could have done better in this chapter, oh well. Thank you for reading and please review! If I have at least one review saying for me to continue, then I well. Remember suggestions are welcome. Or if you're curious about something in my story, please feel free to ask about it. The next chapter might take some time or it might not, depends if anything comes to mind. Until then, later…


	4. stuff animal

**Shinycry**- hi guys! Long time no see, which is my bad. I just wanted to say thank you to all those who reviewed and the readers. Here's chapter 4!  
**Disclaimer**- shinycry doesn't own Naruto.

**Ch. 4**

Iruka, Gaara who's holding Iruka's hand and Sakura walk down the market. They look at all the fresh fruits and vegetables, buying some here and there. As they walk, Iruka catches two ladies behind a stand, staring at Gaara with disgust in their eyes. So when they start talking, Iruka expands his hearing to hear what they were saying.

"Look, I told you the red sand demon was in _our_ village."

"I can't believe it's here."

"Yup, and it can't fool us by changing into a small child. We won't buy it."

"I feel sorry for Iruka-sensei for having to put up it."

Immediately Iruka turns his attention to Gaara to see if he heard them or notice their nasty stares. He didn't want Gaara to feel unwanted or any negative feelings. To his utter relief, Gaara is listening to Sakura while looking at something with a great interest. Looking up to see what it is, it almost makes Iruka chuckle. In fact, he does chuckle softly.

Smiling down, Iruka moves his hand which held Gaara's little one, towards Sakura. "Sakura, can you show Ga-chan toy store over there at the end of the market? I'll be there shortly."

Sakura's a little taken back at the request but knows better then to question her former sensei, who she trusts without a doubt. Nodding her head, Sakura grabs Gaara's little hand and cheerfully said, "Come on Gaara, let's go look at what toys they have!"

At first Gaara looks really hesitant to leave his mother's side but once he sees the reassuring smile his mother is giving him, he nods his head slowly. "Don't be long, okay mommy?"

With a smile and a soft caress on red hair, Iruka replies, "Of course not Ga-chan, be good and listen to Sakura. I'll be back in a few minutes, okay?" Once they leave towards the toy shop, Iruka turns around and walks towards the two voices that continue to talk about Gaara. As he gets closer to them, the feeling he has in his stomach from hearing their bad talk about Gaara keeps on intensifying to the point where he just wants to tell off the old hags.

"And I heard that it's only here because the people in the Hidden Sand Village didn't want it there."

"Then what makes them think we want it here?" one of the ladies whispered harshly to the other.

That's the last straw, "Excuse me? But for your information, Ga-chan is not an it."

"You gave it a nickname?" one of the ladies says in total disbelief.

"If not an it, then what else?" questions the other, studying how Iruka left Gaara with Sakura.

"A poor boy that fate was cruel to upon birth and even now, still continuing to be cruel by having ignorant people, like you, talk about him as if he's a monster."

"It is a monster! And you left it with Sakura! How could you?"

"_He's_ a human who has feelings like the rest of us do. And Sakura will be fine because Ga-chan won't do anything to her."

"No, it isn't. It doesn't know how to feel like us."

"I'm sure _he_ would be deeply hurt and sadden by your ignorant talk."

"Why are you defending it, Iruka?"

Iruka gives them a disgusted look, just like the one he caught them giving Gaara, "I'm not defending it," the two ladies smile thinking they got through to him, "I'm just defending Ga-chan. Tell me something, has Ga-chan ever done anything, _anything at all_ to either one of you. And be honest with yourselves."

Iruka's not surprise when the two ladies for once don't have anything to say back to him. "Next time you start talking about someone, try to think of all the things that person has done to you personally. And if you can't think of anything, then, there's really nothing to talk about" with that, Iruka goes off to go join Gaara and Sakura.

One of the ladies behind the stand looks at the other in surprise, "If I didn't know any better, I'll say he sounded like he was defending his own child or something."

_**At the toy store with Sakura and Gaara**_

When they had first walked in, Gaara had dragged Sakura towards the stuff animal area, having them look at all the different stuff animals the store had to offer.

While looking, Sakura spotted a pink rabbit and reached out to get it. "What do you think Gaara, do you like it?"

All Sakura gets from Gaara is a sour expression. "You don't like pink, huh? Well then, maybe something blue?" Gaara immediately nods his head. He doesn't know what 'blue' looks like but he's sure it's better than this 'pink' color.

So they went back to searching, Sakura looking at the top shelves while Gaara sits on the floor looking at the bottom shelf. He moves the stuff animals around trying to find the perfect one. It's not until Sakura stretches a little to reach a certain stuff animal at the very top of the toy shelf. "How cute!" she squeaks and brings it down.

Gaara looks up to see what Sakura thinks is 'cute'. When his eyes meet the stuff animal in Sakura hands, he right away gets off the floor and tries his best to reach for it. Sakura lowers her hands for Gaara to grab the stuff animal and chuckles. "So this is the winner, huh?" She asks already knowing the answer if Gaara hugging it tightly to his chest is any indication.

"Oh, can I see the winner?" a voice from behind them asks, surprising both Gaara and Sakura. Turning around, Gaara runs up to his mother. Iruka naturally bends down and places the grocery bags on the floor so when Gaara runs into his arms, he can hug him as he lifts him up.

"Mommy, mommy look!" He looks at what Gaara has chosen and blinks in surprise. Sakura walks up to them with a playful smile, "It seems like Gaara has a thing for dolphins, ne Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka can only laugh, "It sure seems that way. Come on, let's go pay for this and meet up with the guys. They're probably waiting for us." Iruka places Gaara down on the floor and grab one of his hands while his other hand grabs some of the grocery bags seeing as how Sakura already grabbed a few herself.

"Well Sasuke and Naruto are probably there already. I don't know about Kakashi-sensei though. It's a shame we didn't get a chance to go shopping for Gaara."

"I know but I don't want the boys waiting for us too long. It's already been a little over an hour. We could always go shopping tomorrow. Thank you." Iruka says as he pays for the stuff dolphin and hands it over to Gaara's waiting hand. "Of course, you know Sakura we'll probably have to take Kakashi with us."

"It's no problem, he can carry the bags!" once Sakura says that both her and Iruka laugh. They both can picture Kakashi reading his 'book' in one hand while carrying bags in the other.

They continue to talk until they spot Naruto sitting down next to a standing Sasuke. They seem to be arguing about something which doesn't come as a surprise for Iruka and Sakura.

"What if Iruka-sensei doesn't have ramen at his place! I'm just making sure by being on the safe side." Naruto glares at Sasuke who glares right back. "By bringing a whole backpack of it? You really are an idiot."

Not wanting them to get into a fight, Iruka asks "Could one of you please help me with these?"

Before Sasuke or Naruto can move to go help Iruka, someone appears from behind and grabs all the bags in Iruka's hand in one hand. "Yo, sorry for being late. I got caught up in which volumes I should take with me."

Normally Naruto and Sakura would be screaming 'liar!' to their sensei but they felt their sensei wasn't lying this time. Although they didn't know if it was a good thing considering what the truth was. So they settled with glaring at him and his bag.

"Kakashi, please don't tell me your bag is half full with your, um, books?" questions Iruka.

"Nope." Kakashi's students look surprise while Iruka signs in relief. Too bad it was short lived, "It's three fourths full!" Four sets of heads drop, they should have known better. They really should have.

"See what we have to put up with, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto whines into his hands.

**TBC**

1. I hope you guys are reading this part because I'm going to explain about Gaara age. I had put two times saying his **3** years old when I answered my reviews. And I know: what? he's 3 and Iruka carrying him? But if you think about, it makes sense. Iruka first carried, actually more like hugging if anything, Gaara because he wanted Gaara to feel warm and safe. But then Gaara had fallen asleep on him, so of course Iruka still going to carry him around. Once Gaara woke up, Iruka still continued to carry him because he figured Gaara still might be tired or half asleep. But after a while, he placed Gaara on the ground and is holding his hand in his.

**Shinycry**- Thank you for reading! Please review and tell what you think. If I have at least one review saying for me to continue, then I well. Although it feels nice when there's quite a few reviews because it makes me feel I don't totally suck. Remember suggestions are welcome. Or if you're curious about something in my story, please feel free to ask about it. Thank you


	5. cute name

**Shinycry**- hello! It's been a while, I've been busy. But don't worry, summer is coming up and I'll have bunch of free time. Free time that well be devoted to my writing! Er, occasionally going out here and there too. There's chapter 6 and sorry for the shortness of it

**Disclaimer**: shinycry does not own Naruto!

**Ch. 5**

They had been walking for a while now with Kakashi reading his book, much to Iruka's dismay, Naruto and Sakura happy talking with Gaara, and Sasuke walking in silence with his plant. So Iruka thinks it's a good opportunity to talk with the usually quiet boy. "So you like plants, Sasuke?" Iruka gestures towards the pot in Sasuke's arms.

Sasuke thinks about it. He just couldn't be rude and not answer the older man, Iruka-sensei had always been on his good side. He never pestered him or annoyed him, and was friendly in way that he didn't mind his company which was rare for him. Looking up into his former sensei's kind face, Sasuke mumbles out a quiet, "Just this one, Iruka-sensei."

"I see, well then I have the prefect room for you and your plant" he pauses then continues, "The window should give a good amount of sunlight into the room. Plus it overlooks my garden."

Sasuke speaks up "You have a garden?"

"Yes, maybe I can even get you to help me when I attend to it." Iruka waits to see if he went too far with that request but smiles when Sasuke nods his head tentatively. "Although I'm sure you won't mind the bookshelf in there, it was all sorts of scrolls on healing techniques and on different types of weapons and so on."

A thoughtful expression comes over Sasuke's face before he asks "If it's not too much trouble Iruka-sensei, may I be allowed to read them?"

"Why of course Sasuke, just remind me to get a lamp from the attic so you can read at night without having to have the room light on."

"Thank you, Iruka-sensei."

"No need to thank me, Sasuke, I just want you to feel at home, that's all. Speaking of which, we're almost there." Iruka speaks a little louder when he says the last statement, wanting the others to know.

Naruto who silently been listening to Iruka and Sasuke talking, remembers when he bought up the plant thing with Sasuke while they were waiting for the other to show up.

**Flashback  
**Naruto had just arrived to see Sasuke placing a pot, with some sort of plant in there, on the ground next to him.

Curious and confuse, Naruto walks toward his teammate. "Why did you bring a plant with you? Like really, Sasuke?"

Without bothering to look up at the blond, Sasuke replies "Because I didn't think it would have remembered to water itself."

Naruto pops himself down next to the plant and glares up into black eyes. "You don't have to be a smart-ass about it, bastard! I just wanted to know."

He rolls his eyes at the other, "It's a stupid question that deserves a stupid answer. Why else would I bring a plant with me other than to make sure it gets watered? Think before you talk, idiot."

"Don't call me an idiot! You're nothing but a bastard, Sasuke!"

Sasuke makes no further comment, folding his arms in front of his chest and looking forward. He completely tunes out the loud blonde which only serves to aggravate Naruto more because the one thing he couldn't stand is being ignored by Sasuke. For a while neither boys say anything to each other. One of them not wanting to talk while the other's too busy thinking of something to talk about. Finally, after studying the plant for minute or two, Naruto breaks the silence, "I would have never thought you had a green thump, Sasuke. It looks well taken care of."

"That's because I'm taking care of it for someone." The tone of voice and the look Sasuke has stops Naruto from asking who that person is. Some things are just best left unasked but it didn't stop Naruto from wondering who it is though. His thoughts don't go too far when the boy standing next to him asks him a question, "So what did you bring?" Sasuke gestures towards the two backpacks he has with him.

With a big smile on his face, Naruto happily answers, "This one has my clothes and toothbrush in it" he points to the smaller of two backpacks. "And this one here has all my ramen!" When Naruto points to the much bigger backpack, Sasuke blinks in surprise and openly stares at the happy blonde. "I can't believe you brought ramen with you" he says in his 'are-you-stupid' tone.

"What if Iruka-sensei doesn't have ramen at his place! I'm just making sure by being on the safe side." Naruto glares at Sasuke, who glares right back. "By bring a whole backpack of it? You really are an idiot."

**End of flashback**

'Well, at least he wasn't being a smart-ass with Iruka-sensei' thought Naruto as he stares at his teammate's content face but quickly directs his eyes somewhere else when Sasuke's glaze meet his. Sasuke raises an eyebrow but says nothing.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei?"

"Yes, Sakura?"

"What is for dinner? I know we went shopping but I don't remember what we decided on."

Iruka blinks in surprise and answers the pink hair girl, "That's a good question, I don't know."

Kakashi, who's still reading his book, makes a suggestion, "How about stuff dolphin? I hear it tastes really good." A grin appears under his mask when he sees Gaara quickly hug his friend closer to his chest glaring as he did it, out of the corner of his eye.

Iruka's about two seconds away from smacking Kakashi upside-down the head with that book of his when Gaara speaks up. "You can't eat Ruka! She's my friend!" a pause, then he worriedly looks up to warm brown eyes, "You won't let him cook her, will you?"

"If he does, he can kiss goodbye his whole collection because once I'm through with it, it will be nothing more but mere ashes. So don't worry about it, Ga-chan." Iruka reassures with a big smile on his face.

Gaara's face lights up and happily tells Ruka the good news, "Did you hear that Ruka? Mommy says you're safe from him." He points to Kakashi for Ruka so she knows to stay away from that man.

"So you named your little friend 'Ruka', huh? What a cute name, don't you agree Iruka?" Kakashi starts poking Iruka with his elbow, trying to get a rise out of him but only got a flush dolphin instead which is okay too.

After she hearing the stuff dolphin's name, Sakura immediately goes 'aww' and 'that's so cute'. The one standing next to her shakes his head and mumbles 'girls'. The blond on the other hand, doesn't see the connection and whispers "Hey Sasuke, what's so special about the name Ruka?" The person who the question is directed at rolls his eyes. With a sigh, Sasuke asks a question in return, "Can you spell Iruka-sensei's name?"

Naruto answers the question with confusion, "Yeah, its I-R-U-K-A. I still don't-hey wait! Ruka is just like Iruka but without the I in there!" Naruto finishes off, looking at Sasuke to see if he's right. Sasuke nods his head. He could have been a smart ass with Naruto but decided against it.

As they continue to walk, Iruka sees a certain house come into view. Picking up Gaara and Ruka, Iruka heads towards the house where most of his childhood took place. "Okay guys, this is where you'll be staying for a while."

"Wow, that's a big house you got Iruka-sensei!" Naruto says as he stars at the two story house.

**TBC**

**Shinycry**- so sorry for it being short. I have to say, that was a pretty long walk. Anyway, the next chapter well be more interesting and the day well come to an end, I don't care if it takes six or seven pages, I well finish it! lol Actually I just want to get this day over with. I had in mind that the first day would take up some chapters and after that, a day for every one chapter or at two the most. Also the story well start to develop!  
Thank you readers and please review. I at least need one review saying they want me to continue. Bye for now and I'll see if I can get the next chapter by next week, can't make any promise. Later! OH, before I go, I just want to say thank you to: **Shi Rurouni of the Aphrodesiac, YJ, RedRoseGirl1613, Shadow Hearthorn, Maria Angelica, Yamiyugikun, Berylia-Crystalia** (to the question that you had asked, chibi means little and I thought it was cute )**, Bomb-O-Maniac, Nanashi Ni, Junsui Kegasu, KageOni1, Rishan and koolanimefreek.** Thank you for your wonder reviews!


	6. Chapter 6

**shinycry- **so sorry for not updating this fic! My computer screwed me over so bad that I had to wipe it out, losing all my data and everything. I was half way done with this chapter before it fucked up on me. Damn, I was pissed and depressed because even when I wiped it out, it started acting up again. It took a week for my brother to fix it and everything. God Bless his soul! Although it took me awhile to get back into my humor mood again to write this story. Hehehee I'm back to myself and my computer is peachy! Well, without further delay, here's chapter 6.

**Disclaimer- **I do not own Naruto!

**Ch. 6**

"This place is huge, Iruka-sensei!" the wide eye blond says as he walks around the family room, looking everywhere. He has never been to Iruka's house before, apartment yes, but house no. Although he's heard about it from Iruka but whenever Iruka mentions his house, he would get this weird look in his eyes. Well, maybe not weird but certainly a look of...of something! 'I wonder why Iruka-sensei is so willingly to offer us his house to live in...' Naruto's so distracted he doesn't notice Sasuke in front of him.

It ends up with Sasuke holding his plant closely to himself and glaring pissed off at the little fox on the floor who's rubbing his butt. "You idiot, watch where you going next time." Sasuke walks off towards the couch, placing the plant on his lap to examine it. 'I will kill that idiot if there's anything wrong with it...' Fortunately for Naruto, there's no damage.

Sighing, Iruka wishes Naruto isn't so easily distracted by things. "Okay guys, how about we eat before getting settled in because I don't know about you guys but I'm pretty hungry myself."

"Yeah! I'm hungry too! If I don't eat anything soon, I'm going to pass out!" Naruto places his hand on his forehead like he's actually going to pass out. He loves being dramatic so sue him.

Looking at his teammate, Sasuke mumbles "Well, I say we don't feed him. Maybe then we'll get some peace and quiet around here." Sasuke easily dodges Naruto's kick which causes Naruto to land on his butt again.

"Naruto! Leave Sasuke alone right now!" Gaara had no idea pink thingy could spit out fire like that.

"You should feed the munchkins soon because they're starting to get cranky, Iruka" a bored Kakashi suggests to Iruka as he sits down on a comfortable chair.

Walking up to the blond who sulking on the floor, Iruka crouches down to place Gaara in front of Naruto. "Alright, we'll eat dinner first and then we'll unpack afterwards! So for the time being if you guys don't mind, you can leave your belongings over there." Iruka points to an area near the closet under the staircase. "Naruto, would you mind playing with Ga-chan and little Ruka for me while I make dinner?" Right when Iruka says that, Gaara quickly turns around and hugs Iruka like he's not going to let go of him anytime soon.

"It's okay Ga-chan, I'm not leaving. I'll just be in the kitchen making something for us to eat." He pauses to push a little back to look at Gaara in the eye, "Aren't you hungry? Besides, don't you like Naruto?" That's Naruto's queue to jump in, "Don't you want to play with me, Gaara? We'll have so much fun! Maybe even get Sasuke to play with us!" Naruto laughs inside when he sees Sasuke's face making a sour expression and how Gaara's eyes light up with excitement.

"Yay! Me and Ruka play with Naruto and Sasuke!" Gaara bounces excitedly in Iruka' arms before making he's way to Naruto. Then a thought suddenly currents to Gaara so he turns to look at the pink thingy, "You play too?" He can't be mean to the person who helped him find Ruka, besides she's really nice and has pink hair! Sakura looks at Iruka before looking back at Gaara, "I was going to help Iruka-sensei make dinner, how about afterwards? I can play with you guys after dinner!"

Iruka shakes his head and places a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "That's okay, Sakura. You don't have to help me although thank you for the offer. I have Kakashi so go on ahead and play with them." Iruka smiles and gestures her to join Naruto and Gaara who were trying to recruit a reluctant Sasuke into joining them in their games. Returning the smile, Sakura nods her head and goes off towards them.

"If you all like, you can go outside in the backyard and play. There's a swing out there as well. Come on, I'll show you." Before Iruka can show them where the backdoor is at, he turns to look at Kakashi. His eyes land on the silver hair Jounins sitting on a chair, reading that 'book' of his. Rolling his eyes, Iruka walks over to Kakashi and grabs one of his arms. He tries his best yank the older man up but the other man isn't bulging. Iruka does the next best thing by leaning forward and whispering something to Kakashi.

"I don't want you reading that 'book' in my house especially with children around so could you please put it away, Kakashi? And please come to the kitchen with me" Iruka whispers to Kakashi, who looks at Iruka for a moment before placing one of his favorite volumes into a safe pouch. Then he lets himself be dragged off by Iruka with an amuse look in his eye that Gaara doesn't like one bit causing him to pout.

Bringing Ruka closer to his mouth, Gaara whispers softly, "We have to look out for him, Ruka." Nodding his head to Ruka, Gaara grabs one of Naruto's hands and starts dragging him off to where his mommy went off to. Sakura wonders if she should drag Sasuke like the way Iruka and Gaara both did to Kakashi and Naruto. However, she took too long and notices Sasuke already walking off, closely behind Naruto and Gaara. With a heavy sigh, she follows them into the hallway that leads into the kitchen.

Once inside the kitchen, Iruka lets go of Kakashi's arm and walks up to the glass sliding doors. Iruka slides them open and beckons the kids to go outside. "Play nice and please try not to get too dry, okay?" Iruka pleads with them. Although it's not like he really needs to because he knows they're all good kids. It's just a habit. "Ah, Sasuke if you like you can leave your plant on the kitchen countertop for the time being. I'll look after it and after dinner I'll show you guys your rooms where you can find a nice spot for it. Does it need to be watered by the way?" Iruka asks when he notices Sasuke still carrying around his plant.

Sasuke considers this for a long moment before deciding to place his plant in the middle of the kitchen countertop. He knows he can trust Iruka-sensei, he's never done anything to cause him to mistrust him. If anything, Iruka is too nice for his own good. But Sasuke guesses it's not a bad thing. "No, I gave it water before coming here. Thank you." With that, he starts walking out the sliding doors followed by Naruto, Gaara, and Sakura. They walk on a little stone path that leads you through the garden and to a big tree that has a swing attach to it.

"Me and Ruka want to swing first!" Gaara declares as he points at the swing hanging off a large branch. Whenever he saw a swing set he always wanted to play on one like the other children but knew he wasn't allowed to. However it's different now because his mommy says it's okay. Maybe later on he can get his mommy to play with him on the swings when he's not busy making dinner. Grabbing the pink thingy's hand, Sakura, Gaara pulls her over to the swing. Sakura smiles as she sees Gaara trying to get on the swing by jumping on it but doesn't really work. She picks him up and places him on the swing. She then starts giving gentle pushes form the back when she sees Gaara settle and ready.

Sasuke and Naruto decide to sit at the trunk of the tree the swing is attached to. Both look around the garden. "Iruka-sensei sure has a lot of different types of roses, I wonder if they mean different things. Like you know how the red roses obvious mean love, but what about the rest?" Naruto ponders out loud.

"What an idiot. You see those white roses over there?" Sasuke points to some beautiful white ones, Naruto nods his head. "They symbolize innocence. Those dark pink ones mean thankfulness while the pale pink roses mean grace. The peach roses are for modesty." Sasuke pauses to see if the blond is paying attention or not but sees Naruto actually is so he continues "And the bright yellow roses stand for...friendship."

Naruto looks thoughtful at the yellow roses before turning to Sasuke, "How come you know so much about roses? I mean I never would have pictured you with flowers. Sakura yes, you no."

"Naruto! Stop bugging Sasuke with silly questions like that!"

"But it's not a silly question Sakura, aren't you curious too?" Sakura is actually very curious but she doesn't want to get on Sasuke's bad side especially since they're all having a good time together. So she changes the subject, "Are you having fun Gaara?" Indeed, Gaara's looking like he's having a fun time swinging.

**Inside with Kakashi and Iruka  
**"They look like they're having a great time" Iruka says as he looks out of the kitchen window into the garden. He never thought he'll see anyone on that swing again. Maybe tomorrow after they come back from shopping, he'll play with Gaara on the swing. 'Yeah, that sounds nice...Maybe even have a little picnic or something, hm'

"Oh Iruka, what are you thinking about? You can tell me" a voice brings Iruka out of his thoughts. He's a little taken back when he notices Kakashi staring right at him from the other side of the counter. His question takes him even further back. 'What am I thinking about? Why does Kakashi want to know? Sometimes I don't understand this man…' When Iruka notices he still hasn't answer Kakashi yet, he blushes out of embarrassment and hastily answers, "About how nice it's going to be when Gaara and I play on the swing tomorrow. That's all."

"Oh, just Gaara and you? What about me, can I join you guys?"

"What? Of cour-" Iruka stops when he notices a playful glint in Kakashi's eye. "Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"You know what you're doing."

"What do you mean?"

"Teasing."

"Teasing? Who?"

"Who do you think?"

"Now why would I tease you?"

Sighing at how childish the other man is acting, Iruka makes a mental note to ask Sakura if Kakashi acts like this with everybody. "You know what Kakashi, do whatever floats your boat."

"Oh, would you like to know what's in my boat?" it's not so much the question that makes him blush but the way Kakashi says it.

"No thank you, Kakashi."

"You sure, Iruka? You never know what you might find."

"Yes, I'm sure Kakashi. Can you just help me cut these?" Iruka hands over another knife and cutting board to Kakashi and moves a little to make room for him. Kakashi takes the hint and starts cutting but that doesn't mean he's going to stop teasing the other man.

Half an hour later dinner is served. Nothing much happens if you don't count Naruto spilling his drink onto Sasuke's plate, Sakura yelling at how clumsy Naruto is, Sasuke glaring at Naruto throughout the dinner, Gaara giving Iruka a hard time with not eating his vegetables, and Kakashi reading his 'book' at the dinner table. Other than that, dinner was great!

After dinner, Iruka decides Sakura should be heading home. The sun is setting and it's starting to get late. "I'll be here around seven tomorrow morning. I'm so excited for tomorrow! Yay shopping!" she squeaks with excitement causing the males in the room to cringe a bit. "Bye Sasuke, Iruka-sensei, Gaara, Naruto, and Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cheerfully hugs Gaara and waves her hand goodbye to the others.

Closing the door behind him, Iruka starts talking "How about we go upstairs to figure out who sleeps where? There are three bedrooms in the house. Two rooms with single beds and one room with two beds." As Iruka talks about the bed situation, Naruto notices something wrong.

"But Iruka-sensei, that's only four beds and we're five people!" Kakashi and Sasuke nod their heads because they noticed it too. Smiling as he picks up Gaara into his arms, Iruka starts making his way up the stairs. "I don't think Ga-chan would want to sleep by himself on a bed. Right Ga-chan?"

"No, me and Ruka sleep with mommy!" Gaara says it in such a childish way that leaves no argument. Well, Kakashi could argue there but it's getting late.

"So there you have it boys. Three beds left for the three of you. Well one of them is already reserved for Sasuke." Iruka pauses as if trying to remember something. Then it dawns on him as he snaps his fingers in remembrance, "Oh yeah, the lamp I mention earlier. I forgot to get it for you."

"Don't worry about it, Iruka-sensei. I don't think I'll be reading tonight. I just want to get some sleep for tomorrow's mission with this idiot" Sasuke dodges the punch Naruto throws his way and continues to follow his former sensei through the hall. Naruto mumbles something about an arrogant bastard under his breath before directing his attention to Iruka. "So basically that means both Kakashi and I share a room or one of us shares a room with you and Gaara?"

Before Iruka can answer Naruto, Kakashi beats him to the punch "No, you and Sasuke will be in the rooms with the single bed. Iruka, Ga-chan and myself well be in the room with the two beds. Wow, that was exhausting but I did it! I say we hit the sack now!" Naturally when he finishes he has two pair of eyes glaring at him. Naruto and Gaara can be so suspicious and disrespectful of him! He doesn't pay them any attention though but instead focus on Iruka. 'I need you to agree with me' he silently tells Iruka.

**Flashback  
**Tsunade is sitting cross legged on the floor looking through some scrolls. When all of a sudden she looks up and turns her head towards the window. "I was wondering when you'll be coming back, Kakashi."

"I figured you wanted to tell me something. Alone." Walking into the room with a backpack over his shoulder and sitting down in front of the Hokage, Kakashi waits.

The Hokage goes back to what she's reading. When she's done, she closes it and grabs another one to read. After a moment of silence, she begins "I'm sure you're wondering why Gaara's even here in Leaf Village to begin with." A nod, "Well his older sister, Temari, approached me about her younger brother staying here for a while."

"Did she say why?"

"No, and I didn't really ask either. She just said if I could keep him here until things cool down in the Sand Village and she'll get him later. I figured it's a family problem" sighing "But I'm starting to wonder just how bad it actually is considering, well, you know" she pauses and stares at him.

"He's the black sheep of the family and how some of his family members aren't very fond of him" he finishes for her. Perhaps it's not Gaara he should be worrying about harming people. Kakashi silently wonders if it was a good idea to leave Iruka and Sakura alone with Gaara.

"Yes, something to that effect. What's got me really concerned is with Gaara in his current state it might make things easier for whoever wants Gaara eliminated to actually attempt something. I can't rule out that possibility. Originally I wanted to sign some Jounins to care for Gaara but they're currently out on missions." Grabbing another scroll, she continues "Then it doesn't help that Gaara decided make Iruka his mother and Iruka willingly accepting the role. Well, I'm pretty sure he doesn't like being called 'mommy' but he's accepting the care-taker role nonetheless. Not like it's a bad idea though. Might do them some good as well as for you" she smirks at Kakashi's raise eyebrow. "Of course you throw in Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura into the mix and here we are."

As Kakashi sat there listening, he couldn't help but wonder why them. Ever since they brought Gaara to Tsunade earlier and before Iruka came into the picture, she had assign Team 7 to care for Gaara. When she's done talking, he finally asks "But still why assign Team 7 to the job? I'm sure you call back some Jounins from their missions." There's a long moment of silence making Kakashi wonder if she, herself, knows why she assign them to this mission.

"I'll be sending Jiraiya over when he comes back from his mission tomorrow. He'll only be there during the daytime but if something happens, he'll be spending the night. Make sure to tell Iruka to give him the couch" a pause, "Another thing, I don't know what the sleeping arrangements are but try to make sure you're with Iruka and Gaara. I don't care how but want you in the same room as them. Just to be on the safe side. I'll keep you inform if something comes up. Make sure to pick up Naruto and Sasuke's mission tomorrow. Don't worry, it's a simple one. With that said, you may go now." Once she's done, Kakashi gives up and leaves out through the window to the spot where they all agreed to meet in an hour.

**End of Flashback**

Naruto begins to protest, "But I want to sleep with Iruka-sensei and Gaara! Wouldn't it make more sense for you to have a whole room to yourself?" The only one who seems to agree with Naruto is Gaara who's nodding his head in full approval.

Iruka wants to agree with Naruto but he notices the look Kakashi is giving him. Kakashi looks like he needs to be in the same room with Gaara. Thinking about it, it does make sense for Kakashi to be in the same room with them especially if something were to happen to Gaara. "I think Kakashi's right, Naruto." Then he sees Naruto's frown, "Think of it this way, you'll have a whole room to yourself!"

When that doesn't work, Sasuke who understands the situation, steps in "The idiot is probably just too scared to sleep by himself."

"WHAT? No, I'm not!"

"Whatever. Iruka-sensei, can you please tell me which room is mine?"

Looking at Naruto's red face, Iruka answers "Um, the last one to your right. The one next to it is Naruto's and across the hall from his is ours. There are two bathrooms. One up stairs and one down stairs so there shouldn't be any arguing tomorrow morning when both of you wake up." For some odd reason, Iruka just felt like he had to mention that.

"Thank you and goodnight." Sasuke turns around and walks towards his room with his plant. Opening the door and stepping halfway in, Sasuke adds "I better not find you knocking on my door tonight wanting to sleep in my room because you're too scared, idiot." He then walks in completely and shuts the door.

"I'm not scared of anything bastard!"

"Naruto, please watch your language."

"But Iruka-sensei, it's not my fault! He's always the one who starts it. Why does he always have to pick on me?"

Poor Iruka has no clue because he's in the same situation with Kakashi. The only thing he can do is smile and gently gesture Naruto towards his door. "I don't know, Naruto. It's been a really long day for all of us. How about we all go and get some much needed sleep. I'm sure you're tired too, right?"

Nodding his head and opening the door, Naruto bids Iruka and Gaara a goodnight with a hug and a yawn. "I'll see you guys tomorrow morning, g'night." He walks in and closes the door softly.

And that's when Gaara starts to rub his eyes with his tiny fist causing Iruka to kiss his temple. "We should get you to bed. You've had a very long day, Ga-chan" he strolls towards their bedroom. Once inside the bedroom, Iruka notices Kakashi takes it upon himself to choose which bed is his. Honestly, Iruka can care less as long as there's a bed for him and Gaara. Going up to the bed next to the window, he grabs the covers and pulls them back so he can place a sleepy Gaara in bed. The soft and warm mattress lulls the little boy to sleep. Iruka stares at the sleeping child for moment before turning his glance towards the other man in the room. "Is there ever a time where you're not reading one of your books?"

Flipping a page, Kakashi responds with a chirpy "Nope!"

Iruka really shouldn't have been surprise by the other man's responds. "Unless you can read in the dark, I suggest close you book because I'm turning off the lights, Kakashi."

"Ah, do you have to? I was just getting to a really good part" Kakashi's eye follows Iruka's movement that going towards the light switch.

"In that case then" and with that the lights are off. Iruka wonders if Kakashi can see his smile in the dark. Walking back to his and Gaara's bed, he can faintly hear Kakashi mumble something like 'that's cold' and snickers. Slipping under the covers all the while being careful with Gaara who automatically hugs his arm, Iruka close his eyes for the day.

He doesn't even open them when he hears Kakashi ask "No good night kiss for me?"

"Go to sleep, Kakashi."

_**With Sasuke**_

Sasuke lays in his bed, looking at the way the moonlight hits his plant that's sitting on a small wooden table under a window. Looking at it for a moment longer, he turns over and shuts his eyes close. Before he drifts off to sleep, a thought occurs to him 'I shouldn't care for it…I really shouldn't…But I can't just let it die…'

_**With Naruto**_

Adjusting his nightcap on his head, Naruto pulls up the covers to his chin and happily closes his eyes. "I can't wait to have some ramen for breakfast tomorrow!"

**TBC**

**shinycry- **Why is Kakashi and Sasuke so bent on picking on Iruka and Naruto? Is there finally a plot to all this? I think there is!  
Putting all that to the side, I want to say thank you for reading! Please review to tell me if you want me to continue or not. Remember, I just need one review at least telling me to continue. later and sorry about it being so late  
**A big thank you to: Junsui Kegasu, Pink-Phantom, Lady Geuna, Bomb-O-Maniac, koolanimefreek, Yamiyugikun, KageOnil, Shi Rurouni of the Aphrodesiac, Hokai Amplifier, JellyBubble, catc10, and Uzamaki Liliana.  
Thanks a bunch guys!**


	7. Morning time

**Shinycry- **I finally updated, go me! I'll talk more in the end and let you guys go to the good stuff. Here chapter 7!  
**Disclaimer- **shinycry does not own Naruto

**Mommy Ch.7 "Morning time"**

It pisses off Naruto to know Sasuke wakes up at the same time as him. Well, he really doesn't know if that's true or not but they both open their doors and walk out of their room at the same time. Then to top it off, Sasuke decides he's King of the world by walking to the bathroom upstairs. The way he walks over there is like he owns the place or something. Again, this all pisses Naruto off greatly.

'He's a jerk 24/7, I swear!' he silently fumes. The thought of running to the bathroom door in hopes of beating the other male goes through Naruto's mind. However Sasuke being Sasuke knows Naruto well enough so he makes a mad dash to the bathroom door which always cause Naruto to do the same. They both grab the bathroom's poor doorknob once they reach the bathroom. Neither one of them even bother twisting the doorknob seeing as they're too busy glaring at each other to do so.

"Why can't you go downstairs? I got here first!"

"No, you didn't. I got here first, so why don't you go downstairs instead" Sasuke uses his shoulder to push Naruto away from the door but Naruto pushes right back because he refuses to let Sasuke win. Their hand start gripping the other's harder as each second passes. They're both too stubborn to compromise with each other.

Then without any warning both Naruto and Sasuke feel the doorknob twist in their hands causing them to loosen their grip slightly on the knob but not on each other. They end up falling forward onto the bathroom's tile when the door is pulled open. Both boys blink at each other in utter shock as they lay half on each other and floor.

Kakashi looks down at his feet, raising a silver eyebrow as he does so. It's not every day you see two of your students laying on the floor with each other's hand tightly clasped together while one of them is half on top of the smaller one. "Comfortable are we? Should I leave you two alone, hm?"

In a blink of an eye, both boys quickly get to their feet with a heavy blush on their cheeks. With a low mumble of "I'll use the down downstairs, idiot", Sasuke takes off to the downstairs bathroom. This of course leaves Naruto with their amuse sensei. He curses the other boy in his head slightly 'Damn bastard, leaving me here like this!'

"Look sensei, it's not what it looks like! You see, the bastard and I walked out of our rooms at the same time to use the bathroom but damn Sasuke wanted to use it first! But I got here first! Sasuke, being a jerk like always, wanted me to use the one downstairs instead of him! Can you believe that! Anyway, I-hey wait! Why am I even explaining this to you?"

"Don't ask me, you're the one who started running your mouth. Besides you two were loud enough for me to guess what went down." Kakashi says as he uses the towel in his hands to finish off drying his wet hair. Walking around Naruto and out of the bathroom, he begins to head off to his shared bedroom. As he's about to turn the doorknob, he hears "Hey Kakashi-sensei, what are you doing up so early anyway? I thought I wouldn't see you until noon or something."

With a smile behind his mask, Kakashi casually replies with a "I'm always up this early." He closes the door behind him as Naruto begins yelling "What the hell? Then why are you always so late meeting up with us!"

Naruto doesn't know if he should go kick Kakashi's ass or not. However the thought of waking up Iruka and Gaara stops him. He'll just kick Kakashi's ass later and to be sure to Sakura about this discovery. "You got lucky, stupid-late-ass-sensei."

When the bathtub is nice and full, Sasuke slips in. He relaxes his body with his chin on the edge of the bathtub and his arms dangling outside. With his fingers, Sasuke begins to trace figures with no real importance on the tile floor, feeling the cold surface as he does so.

Sighing, Sasuke submerges himself underneath the water for a few moments before bringing his head up to breath. He stares down at his reflection in the water and frowns at what he sees. Drops of water fall from his wet hair and back into the water where they miss up his reflection when they land.

_Drip_

'What am I even doing anymore?'

_Drip_

'I don't hate him…'

_Drip_

'I never have…'

_Drip_

'…even though I should…'

_Drip_

'Should I throw it away…?'

He brings his knees underneath his chin where he leans on them. Closing his eyes, he tries his best to not think about _him _anymore. He's sick and tired of it. He would rather think about Naruto!

_Drip_

'He's such an idiot sometimes…'

_Drip _

'He's so loud and cheerful too…'

_Drip_

'How can someone be so cheerful all the time?'

_Drip_

'He's like a weed or…a sunflower. They grow everywhere'

Then something occurs to him causing him to stand up in the bathtub. Grabbing a towel from a nearby shelf, he begins to dry himself off.

"I need to water my plant before leaving. I don't know how long Naruto and I are going to out on our mission today."

Someone's poking Iruka in the chest, obviously trying to wake him up. If the poking isn't enough to wake him up, he can hear two people arguing over something. He's too half asleep to hear what's going on. With a heavy sigh, Iruka opens his eyes reluctantly. The first thing he sees is Gaara sitting up and practically glued to his side. Then he notices Kakashi sitting on their bed while trying to take Ruka away from Gaara...

"Kakashi, what in the world are you doing on _this _bed? And for goodness sake, leave them alone" as tempting as it is to yell at the silver hair Jounin right now, Iruka's simply not in the mood. He just woke up and he doesn't want to have to deal with Kakashi's misbehavior at the moment. Not waiting for any answers he gathers Gaara and Ruka into his arms and gets off the bed and away from the Jounin.

Behind him, Kakashi says "From now on, I'll be sleeping on this bed. Is that alright with you?"

Gaara, who's clinging onto Iruka's shirt, starts protesting immediately. "No way! You no sleep with mommy!"

When he woke up this morning, he found the big meanie on the same bed with him and his mommy. Not only that but he had his fingers running through his mommy's hair. He had a weird look in his face too, well, what's shown of it anyway. He was surprise his mommy didn't feel it, especially when he tried to push the hand away from his mommy's hair. Gaara was pleased with himself when he bit down on meanie's hand causing the older man to bring his hand to eye-level to look at the damage. While he was occupied, Gaara turned his attention to his sleeping mommy. He tried his best to wake him up by poking him but it didn't work. When he's about to start another round of poking him, he feels someone trying to take Ruka from his lap.

It was the meanie and he was saying stuff like how he shouldn't be waking up his mommy. And that if he continues, he was going to take Ruka away from him. There's no way he going to allow this man to sleep in the same bed as his mommy!

"Ga-chan, I'm sure he doesn't mean it like that. We're just going to switch beds, don't worry."

"No, Gaara has it right so how about it, Iruka?" Kakashi wiggles his eyebrow suggestively.

Taking a _deep_ breath and ignoring the blush he knows is there, Iruka calmly says "Yes Kakashi, you can have this bed _**while**_ Gaara and I have that one. Now that it's settled, let's go down stairs. Sakura should be arriving pretty soon" Iruka carries Gaara and Ruka out the door, leaving Kakashi alone to stare at his ass as he walks out.

Strolling into the kitchen, Iruka sees Sasuke sitting by the table. He also notices a disgusting look he has on his face. He follows the young boy's stare and finds it's directed at Naruto who's eating…ramen…in the morning.

"Naruto because it's the first day, I'll let this pass. However from now on, you will not be eating ramen for breakfast. Eating ramen for lunch or dinner is fine but not for breakfast, okay?" Iruka pleads with the boy. He knows Naruto loves ramen but eating it for breakfast? Just no…

"What did I tell you, idiot?"

"Shut up, bastard!"

Shaking his head, Iruka settles Gaara with his little friend on a chair next to Sasuke who continues to criticize Naruto on his poor choice in breakfast. Gaara's the only one to finds it funny as he giggles with Ruka.

There's a knock at the door and Iruka finds it perfect timing. He uses it as an excuse to separate the two fighting boys. He sends Naruto to answer the door and he ignores Naruto's soft cursing directed at Sasuke. Once he's out of the kitchen, Iruka grabs Naruto's ramen and walks over to the trashcan. "I'm sorry Naruto but I want you eating healthier stuff for breakfast." He throws it away and proceeds to make a healthier breakfast for the occupants in the house.

"Do you like oatmeal, Sasuke?"

It's been a long time since he's had oatmeal for breakfast so when Iruka asks him, he nods his head without really thinking about it. "Yes, Iruka-sensei, I do like oatmeal. By any chance do you have honey?"

Chuckling at the question, Iruka opens the pantry door and brings out a bottle. He walks over to the table and places it down in front of Sasuke. "Of course I do! What's oatmeal without some honey, hm?" Sasuke rewards Iruka with a half-smile for his answer.

Meanwhile Gaara looks at his mommy with confusion playing in his eyes. Curiosity causes him to ask "Mommy, me and Ruka want to know if oatmeal tastes good or if it tastes yucky."

Iruka pauses his measuring to turn his head towards Gaara and smile. "Not only does it taste good but it's health for you too!"

"What's the honey for then, mommy? I have to put honey in tasty oatmeal?"

"Well, some people like to add things to their oatmeal. Like for example, Sasuke and I like honey with ours. Others may like strawberries, slice peaches, or cinnamon in theirs. It just really depends on the person and what they like."

Gaara looks thoughtful before nodding his head to Ruka. "If mommy and Sasuke like honey in theirs, then me and Ruka want to try some with ours" he says happily, hugging Ruka to his chest.

Sasuke grabs the bottle and twists off the cap. Looking at Gaara, Sasuke says "Here, give me your finger."

Blinking, Gaara sticks out his index finger with his palm facing up towards the older boy. Sasuke squeezes the bottle gently so only a little comes out. He's pretty sure Iruka won't appreciate the mess because honey can get really sticky. Once a drop of honey is on Gaara's little finger, Sasuke closes the bottle and places it back on the table. "Try it."

Glancing at his mommy, who gives him an encouraging smile, Gaara licks his finger the honey is on. A moment passes before Gaara looks up at them with a huge smile. "Yummy!"

"What's yummy?" Iruka and Sasuke turn around to look at the three newcomers walking into the kitchen. Sakura has her eyebrow rise as she makes her way to where Iruka's standing and places a basket next to him.

Pointing to the bottle of honey, Gaara cheerfully shouts "Honey is yummy! Try some, try some!"

"Hey Gaara, do you want to know where honey really comes from?"

"Kakashi, stop it and get over here. I don't trust you at the table."

"You don't have to be so blunt, Iruka" Kakashi says fake hurt.

"When it comes to you, Kakashi, I do. By the way good morning, Sakura!"

"Ah, good morning Iruka-sensei, Sasuke, Gaara, and I can't forget about Ruka." Sakura giggles as she says Ruka's name. She just couldn't help it! It was so cute of Gaara to name his stuff dolphin after Iruka.

As Kakashi makes his way over to Iruka, he reaches out to Ruka like he was going to take it away. He grins when he sees Gaara glaring at him and protectively holding onto his stuff friend.

Besides Gaara, Sasuke shakes his head at how childish his sensei is acting. Actually, Sasuke changes his mind and decides his sensei is acting stupid. He's glad when Iruka whacks his sensei in the back of head as he continues to talk with Sakura.

"If you don't mind me asking, Sakura, what's in the basket?"

"Oh, my mom made some muffins for you, Iruka-sensei!"

"Really, well, tell her I said 'thank you' for me."

"No problem!"

Meanwhile Naruto stands there looking at the spot where his bowl of ramen is supposed to be at. He feels like he's going to have a heart attack any moment if his precious bowl of holiness doesn't show up. 'Where is it? I left it right here!' So he asks the one person who he's sure knows the whereabouts of his ramen. "Iruka-sensei! I can't find my ramen!"

The person in question pales a little. How is he supposed to tell Naruto he wants him to eat healthier food so he kinda of threw away his bowl of ramen? He's about to tell Naruto his reasoning but Sasuke beats him to it. "That's because I threw it away in the trash. Besides Iruka-sensei is making oatmeal so calm down and close your mouth already?"

The whole kitchen falls into a silence as they all stare at the furious blond who looks like he's going to pop. "SASUKE, YOU BASTARD!" can be heard throughout the entire village.

Throughout breakfast, Iruka keeps on telling Naruto he's the one who threw away his ramen. However Sasuke continues to tell Iruka he doesn't have cover up for him. But it doesn't matter to Naruto either away because in his mind, he blames Sasuke for his thrown away ramen. This, of course, causes Sakura to shout at Naruto that Sasuke probably did it for a good reason so instead of blaming him, he should be thanking him. Naruto probably would have choked on oatmeal at Sakura's word if it wasn't for Kakashi patting his back. Gaara and Ruka just sit there, pouring tones of honey into their bowl which makes Iruka switch bowls so Gaara doesn't get a sugar high. Iruka doesn't know if Gaara can get a sugar high but he doesn't want to find out especially since they're shopping today.

"I still don't see how ramen isn't breakfast material" Naruto says as he sulks for his fallen love.

**TBC**

**Shinycry-** eek, I really need to start speeding things up. I just have a hard time doing that, this story well probably have tons of chapters once I'm done with it. Is that a good thing or bad thing? Anyway, thank you for reading and please review to tell me how I did. The whole I need at least one review to say continue and I will, will always stand. I'll try to update more often, can't make any promise though. Thank you to those who reviewed! Love you guys**! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Shinycry**- hey guys, it's been awhile. Well to make up for that, I decided to make this chapter longer than the others as an 'I'm sorry for being so lazy and for not writing'. Actually, I've just been busy with homework and school which sucks but can't do anything about it. What I'm talking for, I'm sure you guys are itching to read the chapter so here chapter 8! Please Enjoy!  
**Disclaimer- **shinycry does not own Naruto!

**Ch. 8**

Iruka sighs as he watches Gaara, excuse him, a very naked and laughing Gaara running away from very panicky Sakura who's chasing after him with a red shirt in her hands. After Kakashi left to go get Sasuke and Naruto's mission for the day, everything decided to go up into chaos.

Naruto has yet to forgive Sasuke for throwing away his ramen this morning. No more matter what Iruka says, Sasuke still comes in and makes things worse between himself and Naruto. Iruka doesn't want the boys on bad terms especially today because they have a mission together. He tries his best to patch things up between the two boys but is failing miserably. He can hear Naruto screaming at Sasuke about how much of a bastard he is while Sasuke replies with how much of an idiot Naruto is. Iruka's almost wishes Kakashi was here to help him.

Then he has a dirty Gaara, compliments of Kakashi. At least Sakura offered to help him by cleaning Gaara's face up and changing his dirty clothes to some clean ones that don't have oatmeal all over them. Since he wasn't able to go shopping yesterday or retrieve his old clothes from when he was a child, he asks Naruto if he can borrow one of his shirts for Gaara. Naturally Naruto says 'yes' and does him a favor by getting it. This gives him a moment of silence and a clean shirt for Gaara.

However it doesn't last every long. Naruto hands the shirt to Sakura and goes back to yelling at Sasuke who's now ignoring him which causes Naruto to pop a vein. Sakura looks cross from screaming at Naruto to leave Sasuke alone and washing the oatmeal off of Gaara. Gaara wins as she leaves Sasuke and Naruto to Iruka. She takes Gaara's hand takes him to the upstairs bathroom.

"I can't believe you threw away my precious ramen!"

"Well believe, dope."

This goes on for a bit longer before Iruka physically steps in-between them. "Naruto please listen to me! Sasuke did not, I repeat, did not throw away your ramen. Sasuke don't even say a word or so help me. I know you're trying to cover for me and I think it's very sweet of you to do" Sasuke bristles and blushes "But please stop trying to take the blame for me. You two are going to be working together on a mission today. I want you boys to get along and-Gaara!" Iruka shrieks as he sees a very naked Gaara running, closely followed by Sakura who's trying her best to catch him.

Sakura continues to chase the little one while shooting death glares every now and then in Naruto's direction who's laughing at her situation. Sighing, Iruka decides to help Sakura. He gets a breakthrough when he sees a naked Gaara coming his way. He quickly scoops up the naked boy into his arms. For some odd reason, this makes Gaara giggle. It's like he was playing some sort of game which he is. He chants cheerfully "You win, you win mommy!"

Going along with Gaara's little game Iruka, in a surprise voice, says "Oh, I did? Well, do I get a prize for winning?" Gaara titles his head to the side to think about it. He has to give something to his mommy for winning.

As Gaara ponders this, Sakura walks up from behind them. She looks and feels completely worn out. She had no clue how hard it was going to be when she offered to help Iruka out with Gaara. She saw how he was trying to deal with Sasuke and Naruto and at the same time with Gaara. Since she always deals with Sasuke and Naruto, she thought she switch and take on Gaara.

At first there's no problem, Gaara sit there quietly and allows her to wipe off the oatmeal on his face. He still behaves well when she takes him into Naruto's room to get a different shirt because she refuses to have Gaara wear the shirt Naruto got. Gaara is so not wearing a shirt that says 'I Love Ramen and So Should You'. She absolute refuses. So after cleaning him up, she takes him to Naruto's room which has a sign on the door that says "Don't Enter Sasuke". Her eyes twitch at that. Once inside, she goes the small dress and hopes she opens the right one.

She's lucky. After going through some shirts, Sakura finds a nice red shirt which surprises her because she never seen Naruto wear red. Oh well, this red shirt is just going to have to do until they go shopping and buy proper clothes for him. She removes Gaara's clothing which is only a shirt. She walks over to the hamper in the room and dumps the dirty shirt in.

When she turns around, Gaara's nowhere to be seen. She can hear giggling coming from the other side of the bed. Walking cautiously around the bed, she spots red hair and off it goes chanting "Catch me, catch me!" And the chase was on. Who knew someone so small can run so fast?

"How about being good and letting me put this shirt on you, Gaara. I'm sure Iruka-sensei would love this prize." Sakura says as she opens the shirt and gets ready to slip it on Gaara.

Taking his cue, Iruka nods his head. "I think it's the best prize there is." He moves closer to Sakura when Gaara raises his little arms into the air where Sakura then gently slips the shirt on. Once it's on, Sakura pats Gaara's head and gives him a big smile.

"There, all done!"

"Mommy, can I have Ruka back now. Please?"

"Sure thing, Ga-chan. I just didn't want her to get dirty too, that's all." Iruka processes to walk over to the coffee table and pick up the stuff dolphin. Seeing his friend again, Gaara quickly hugs her and kisses her snout. Sakura squeaks at the cuteness and Iruka smiles. But it's all short lived when they hear Naruto's loud voice.

"There's no way I'm going on a mission with you!"

"Don't then, I'll probably do a better job if it's just me."

"Why you damn cocky bastard!"

Iruka's about to scold Naruto for using inappropriate language in front of Gaara but someone beats him to the punch. "Now, now, acting like this in front of Iruka-sensei? He's going to think I don't train you guys' right in the area of teamwork."

"That's because you don't Kakashi-sensei!"

"Oh, I don't? Well what a coincidence! I just so happen to have this mission here that involves teamwork. You and Sasuke will do this mission together and I better not hear any complains whatsoever. Do I make myself clear?"

Naruto looks like he wants to say something but keeps his mouth shut while Sasuke just glares at their sensei.

"Good! Here's the mission! Try not to have too much fun, okay?" Kakashi then walks over to Sasuke and hands him the scroll.

"Hey! How come you gave it to Sasuke and not me?"

"He doesn't trust you with it. You might lose it."

"What? Who say I'll lose it?"

"I did."

"Why you bas-"

"Naruto!"

"But Iruka-sensei!"

"No buts Naruto!"

Naruto wants to comment on the fact Sasuke is being bastard but stops when he sees the other boy walk pass him and into the kitchen. After a moment later, he comes out with a cup of water that he takes up stairs. "Huh? He can't drink water in front of us or something?" Naruto's annoyance is clear in his voice. "Oh, he thinks he's too good for us, is that it?"

"I'm sure he doesn't think that Naruto. Maybe he's just…watering his plant or something" Sakura tries her best to defined Sasuke's action.

"Sure, Sakura, sure. By the way I just notice Gaara's not wearing the shirt I gave you guys. What happen to it?" Everyone turns to look at Gaara and the over-size red shirt he's wearing. "I mean it's cool you got another one of my shirts but I thought the one I gave you was cool. In fact it's my favorite shirt!"

"Oh?" Looking at Sakura, Iruka curiously asks "What was wrong with the other shirt?" Thinking about it, Iruka remembers an orange shirt in Naruto's hand, not a red one like the one Gaara's wearing.

"Oh you should have seen it, Iruka-sensei!" Sakura explains. "The shirt had 'I Love Ramen and So Should You'! I couldn't let Gaara walk around with that! Especially when Naruto and Sasuke go out for their mission and the rest of us go shopping!"

"The rest of us? Excuse me?" Kakashi's voice appears from behind them. Kakashi does not do shopping, in fact he hates shopping. He would rather take up one of Gai's stupide challenges then go shopping.

"Yes the rest of us which includes you, me, Sakura and of course Ga-chan."

"Don't forget Ruka mommy!" Gaara holds his stuff friend up to his mommy so he can see her.

"And Ruka too."

"Sucks to be you, huh, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Naruto!"

"Sorry Iruka-sensei!"

"You know what Iruka? I think it might be best if I go with Sasuke and Naruto. You know to make sure they don't kill each other or something along those lines."

There's no way Iruka is going to let Kakashi off the hook especially after the little stunt he did with Gaara this morning. Besides someone needs to carry the bags anyway. "I think they'll be just fine without you, Kakashi. No need to worry about them so you're coming with us."

Just then Sasuke comes back down with an empty glass in his hand and notes the pain look in his sensei's face…er, eye. "There you are Sasuke!" Naruto walks over to Sasuke and take the empty glass from his hand and places it on a nearby table. He then links his arm with one of Sasuke's arms which surprises the raven hair boy. "Well, Sasuke and I will be leaving now! You guys have fun shopping! Oh and Kakashi-sensei, try not to have too much fun, okay? Later!" With that both boys are out the door. Kakashi makes a mental note to get back at Naruto for this.

_**Outside**_

They've being walking for some time now when Sasuke notices Naruto's arm in still linked to his. He sincerely hopes Naruto doesn't plan on walking like this throughout this trip. Making up his mind, he comes to an abrupt stop causing Naruto to stumble backwards by a step or two. Turning his head, Naruto glares at Sasuke "Why did you stop?"

"I stopped because I wanted you to let go of my arm" he emphasizing it by raising his arm that's attached to Naruto's. Sasuke supposed he could have just rudely yanked his arm free. However he felt like he shouldn't add more fuel to fire between them today. Hey, they do have to go on a mission together.

Blinking at his arm and at the fact he forgot about grabbing the other boy's arm in the first place. Of course he immediately let's go. "Sorry about that. I just wanted to leave the house in a hurry."

Sasuke raises an eyebrow and asks the obvious question "How come?"

"You know how Gaara needs clothes right? Well, Iruka-sensei and Sakura are dragging Kakashi-sensei with them shopping!" Naruto starts laughing out loud. He's totally picturing a pain stricken Kakashi carrying tons of bags.

"And that's why Kakashi-sensei wanted to come with us?"

"Yup!"

Sasuke has to give credit to Iruka for getting back at Kakashi this morning when he 'accidentally' slipped his bowl of oatmeal on Gaara. It also didn't help when Kakashi used the lame excuse he had to leave to retrieve his and Naruto's mission for the day when Iruka started coming towards him with dangerous eyes. 'Serves him right…' Sasuke thought. "Anyway, let's take a look at where we need to go for the mission. No sense in wandering around the streets all day."

After a moment of silence Naruto ask "So…where's the mission taking place?"

"You know the house near the bridge where we wait for Kakashi-sensei every morning?"

"Um, yeah."

"There."

"Oh, what type of mission is it anyway? Is it something cool?"

"If you consider planting cool then I guess so."

"Planting! What? What type of a mission is that?"

"A mission we're going to complete, that's what."

"What a lame mission, I bet Kakashi-sensei did this on purpose."

"Planting isn't hard, even an idiot like you can do it."

"Well that's easy for you to say Mr. I-have-a-green-thumb!" he pauses for a moment, "And what the hell is that supposed to mean 'even an idiot like you can do it'?"

"Come on and let's go."

They start walking again but this time towards the bridge where the house is located. There's no dialogue between the boys as they travel, both deciding to remain silent. Sasuke wants to ask Naruto why he's so quite but figures he's better off leaving the blond alone. They already fought this morning and he doesn't want to agitate the blond anymore then he already has. The blond on the other hand decides to stay quite because he doesn't want to start a fight with Sasuke and have Iruka be disappointed in him. Regardless of what others may think, Naruto does know how to behave.

Once they're there, Sasuke knocks on the door and waits. They both hear a faint 'just a moment' before the door opens and reveal an old lady. She smiles at them and gestures them in. "You must be here for the mission, yes?"

"That is correct, ma'am. By the way I'm Sasuke and this is Naruto. It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, ma'am! How can we assist you today?"

"Oh, it's good to know young people nowadays still have manners! Please do come in and follow me. I know this isn't really a tough mission for you boys but I just love my garden to death. However in my old age, I can't tend to it like I use to. And I made a promise to take care of it to someone very special to me. That's why please-"

"It's alright, ma'am. We understand and we're glad we can help you. Just tell us what you want done and we'll see to it with the best of our abilities! Plus this person right here is really, really good with plants!" Naruto points to Sasuke who looks at Naruto with curious eyes. Naruto's mood swings always amaze and annoy Sasuke. Just an hour ago, Naruto wanted to kick his ass and now he's praising him. Then again this is Naruto, always willing to help someone in need and reassuring old ladies.

"Really? Well, I'm not surprised. I can sense other people with green thumbs you know!"

"Eh, really? But if that's the cases, you might not want me near your plants, ma'am."

"How do you know if you never tried? You can have a green thumb."

"I agree with this young gentleman. Besides I sense a little green thumb on you too."

"Really? Well, I hope so for your sake!"

"Don't you mean for her plants' sake?"

"Oh you're right, for your plants' sake then!"

"You two are so cute. Come one in and let me show you my garden."

The old lady opens her back door and strolls outside to her garden where the boys follow closely behind her. She goes over to the side of the house where there are pots of flowers that need to be planted. "These flowers over here are white lilies and on these over there are white lilacs. I saw them at the flower shop and I had to have them in my garden. They just look absolutely beautiful, don't you agree?"

Naruto blinks at the names but nods his head. "They sure are! I especially like the lilies."

Looking at the two different flowers, Sasuke responds "They're both beautiful but I prefer the lilacs over the lilies. So I guess that decides who plants what. All we need to know now is where you want us to plant them, ma'am." Sasuke glances over to the old lady who's giving him a thoughtful expression. After a few seconds later, she directs her glances towards her garden. She looks around and finally decides where she wants her flowers to be planted. Pointing over where two trees sit close to each other, she says "I want my lilies to go around the tree on the right while I want the lilacs to go around the other tree if that's okay with you two."

"No problem, ma'am! Just leave it up to us!"

"Such good boys you two are. Well, I'll be inside and if you need anything just come in and tell me, okay? The gardening tools and gloves are already next to the pots as you can see." Once she receives two nods, she walks back into the house with a smile on her happy face, knowing her flowers are in good hands.

_**With the Others**_

Oh, how Kakashi wishes he was anywhere else but here right now. They already spent an hour in this store and have yet to buy anything so far. Apparently Gaara's a very picky person and Iruka refuses to buy something Gaara doesn't like. Sakura feels the same way because according to her you'll be wasting money and closet space by buying something you don't like. Kakashi doesn't feel the same way as Iruka and Sakura. His mentality to buying clothes is if they fit, then they're good. It really is a shame they don't follow his way of thinking.

So here's Kakashi, sitting on a chair and he's not even allowed to read his book. His own book! Iruka thinks his book is too inappropriate to be reading it out in public but he disagrees. It's not like he's going to have story time and read his book out loud to a bunch of kids or something. However, when Iruka gets into his crazy mother-hen mode, Kakashi's learn to just nod his head in agreement. Kakashi knows Iruka is made from sugar, spice and everything nice which he blames the 'everything nice' part for his predicament right now.

"Kakashi?"

Kakashi looks up to see Iruka holding Gaara who isn't wearing his oversize red shirt anymore. Instead Gaara has black shorts and a white short sleeves sailor shirt that has two red lines at the bottom as well as on the sleeves. And let's not forget the red fabric underneath the collar. Overall giving Gaara a little school boy look.

"Don't you think he looks adorable? Too bad he doesn't like the hat that comes with it" Sakura says as she hold up the little hat.

Kakashi could care less if Gaara liked or disliked the hat, at least the boy finally choose out something. "Sure he is so can we leave now?" Both Iruka and Sakura give Kakashi a look like he just grew another head or something.

"But Kakashi-sensei, it's only one outfit."

"What's wrong with one outfit?"

"Look Kakashi, it's going to be lunchtime in an hour. We'll leave until then. But in the meantime I want to get Ga-chan some more clothes and some pajamas."

"But I thought you were going to give him some of your old ones you have stored…somewhere."

"Well yeah, but what if he doesn't like them? I'm just going to buy him a few outfits, Kakashi." Iruka walks over to Kakashi and pulls out his book. "Since you've been so good, I'll give you your book back. Enjoy."

Without blinking an eye, Kakashi quickly grabs his book and starts flipping through the pages to find where he last left off before it was taken away. Iruka can't help but roll his eyes at Kakashi and goes back to Sakura and Gaara. 'I'll never understand him…'

An hour later and a bag full of clothing, they walk out of the store much to Kakashi's relief. They actually would have stayed longer if it wasn't for Gaara who was starting to get hungry. Since it's a nice day, they decide to eat at a little restaurant that has a patio where you can eat outside. Once they're seated, Gaara starts looking in the shopping bag which Iruka sees. "Ga-chan, what are you looking for?" Iruka pauses when he notices something about Gaara. "Where's Ruka, Gaara?'

"That's what I'm looking for, mommy! I put Ruka here but she's not here no more!" the little one sobs as he tries to find his friend. He remembers placing her in the bag because the mean one-eye kept teasing her. So he thought it would be safer for her to be in the bag and away from mean one-eye. However she's not in the bag anymore. "Mommy, I want Ruka!"

Sakura bits her lower lip thinking of what could have possibly happened to the stuff toy. "Maybe Ruka fell out of the bag. I mean the bag's kinda of full to begin with so that could have happened. And if that's the case, then we can still find her by backtracking our steps from the clothing store."

As Iruka tries to comfort the sobbing boy by placing him in his lap, he says "You're probably right, Sakura. We just need to retrace our steps and hopefully find her."

"And if we don't or someone or something already got to it first, what then?" Kakashi just had to open his mouth causing Gaara to cry even harder at the thought of someone hurting his friend. Both Iruka and Sakura shot Kakashi a glare, silently saying 'you're not helping'. Kakashi's lucky Gaara's on Iruka's lap because he would have whacked Kakashi over the head if he wasn't. But going back to Gaara, Iruka begins rubbing small circles on his back to comfort the boy. "Shh, don't worry, Ga-chan. Kakashi going to go and look for her. And when he finds her, he'll bring her back. Isn't that right, Kakashi?"

It doesn't take a genius to know when you've been threatened into doing something. So Iruka wants _him_ to find the stuff dolphin, just him and no one else. Well, isn't that great. "Sure, it's like I'm doing anything else at the moment. I'll be sure to bring her back home." He gets up and leaves mumbling something about the unfairness of it all. How's he supposed to find a stuff dolphin? Granted he can find the stuff dolphin within five minutes if he really wanted to and Iruka probably knows that. Damn, if that's the case then he can't take too long because he does not want an unhappy Iruka on his case. Normally he wouldn't care if someone's unhappy with him but they're sharing the same room together at the moment.

'Okay, if I was a dolphin where would I be?' Kakashi pauses to think about the question for a moment, 'besides living under water.' As he continues in his train of thought about what dolphins would do on land, something catches his attention. Turning his head in that direction, he can only think of one word 'Shit.'

Back at the restaurant, Iruka and Sakura are trying their best to calm down Gaara. At one point, Iruka find its best not to mention Kakashi and Ruka in the same sentence around Gaara. Apparently Gaara doesn't trust Ruka in Kakashi's hand. Just saying Kakashi's name makes the little boy cry harder, the older man's name doing nothing to bring comfort to Gaara's ears. They're able to calm him down to the point where he's only sniffing here and there.

The waiter comes and asks them what they want to drink. They tell him and Iruka decides to order Ice Tea with lemon for Kakashi, hoping the other man likes it. The waiter leaves and after a few moments, he returns with their drinks. Iruka pops the straw in a little cup and hands the lemonade over to Gaara while Sakura pops her straw into her pink lemonade cup. Sipping some of her drink, Sakura finally decides to ask a question she's already asked before but never got an answer to. "Iruka-sensei, may I ask you a question?"

"Yes, Sakura?"

"I know it's not my place to ask this but why didn't you sell your house? I mean you said it yourself about how it feels odd living there all alone."

There's a moment of silence and Sakura wonders if she should apologize for stepping over her boundaries. Iruka's soft voice stops her, "It's the house where I grew up. I can't find it in me to sell it…I just…can't." He pauses to smile before adding "Besides keeping the house came in handy, wouldn't you say?"

Sakura nods her head and grabs a napkin to clean up some of the lemonade Gaara's bubbles made on the table. Apparently Gaara finds it amusing to blow air into his straw thus creating bubbles.

"Now I have a question for you, Sakura, if you don't mind."

"Sure Iruka-sensei!"

Iruka hesitates to ask but he wants to know. "It's about your sensei. How does he normally act around others? "

"I'm sorry but I don't really know Iruka-sensei. I've never really seen him talk with others expect for Gai-sensei but that's different. Gai-sensei does like 90% of the talking in those conversations. He usually keeps to himself with that book of his from what I've seen although he seems quite lively around you, Iruka-sensei. Well, maybe 'lively' isn't the word I'm looking for but you know what I mean, right? You have an idea why?"

"I was hoping you could tell me. Oh well, let's not drill on it too much, okay? And please don't tell Kakashi-sensei about this. Let's keep it between us."

"It's alright Iruka-sensei, I agree with you so I won't tell him."

"Tell who what?" A voice behind them causes them to jump in their sits a bit. They turn their attention towards the newly arrived Kakashi who has Ruka in his hand. Only thing is Ruka…looks like she's seen better days. I

"Oh my goodness, what happened to her?" Iruka shrieks when he sees Ruka's current state but then quickly look over to Gaara who's on the verge of tears. Iruka's not too sure if all this stress is good on Gaara and his one-tail beast.

"Well, I retrace our steps and out of the corner of my eye I caught a dog holding it. Actually it was more like chewing on it then holding it. Anyway, I tried my best to take it back without damaging her however I noticed there's a small tear on her snout." Kakashi handles over Ruka to Gaara and pats his head gently. "Besides the little tear on the noise and some dirt here and there, Ruka's okay. I'm sure Iruka can sew it up and wash it. She'll be good as new, right Iruka?" For once Kakashi is not only behaving himself but is also trying to be helpful making Iruka smile.

"Kakashi's absolutely right, Gaara. Just a few stitches and a nice warm bath, Ruka will be all better!"

A teary-eye Gaara looks at his friend before looking up at his mommy, "Really?" He watches as his mommy nods his head and gives a teary smile. Looking down at his friend, he kisses her snout. "Did you hear that, Ruka? Mommy's going to make you all better so don't worry, okay."

"Don't worry, Gaara. She'll be okay but for the time being, let's put her safely in the bag where she can rest, okay? I'm sure she's tired." Gaara reluctantly gives Iruka his dolphin friend but knows his mommy his right.

After they order their food and eat, they decide to call it a day and head back home. When they reach Iruka's house, Sakura offers to put away Gaara's clothes. She still hadn't gotten over the cuteness of the clothes and can't wait for Gaara to wear some of the outfits. After settling down Gaara next to Kakashi on the sofa, Iruka gives her the 'okay' and the directions to their room and where she can put Gaara's new clothes at. She happily grabs the shopping bag and goes upstairs.

"I seriously hope she doesn't decide to have a kid now because she loves baby clothes" Kakashi comments on Sakura's enthusiastic over putting away children's clothing. Of course Kakashi knows Sakura wouldn't, she too smart for that.

"You and I both know she won't do something like that. Besides its nice having extra help, right Ga-chan?" Gaara happily nods his head. "She's really good with children. I bet whenever she does decide to become a mother, she's going to be a great one" Iruka says as he looks around the family room for the sewing kit. Sitting down next to Gaara, he gently asks the small boy if he can have Ruka whose bundle up in Naruto's red shirt.

Obviously Gaara gives Ruka to Iruka. He sits there and watches as his mother begins sewing up Ruka's snout. Within ten minutes, Ruka's tear is nicely close. Now Ruka's is just dirty! "Mommy healed Ruka! You're the best, mommy!" Gaara suddenly hugs Iruka's waist who quickly moves the needle out of the way so it doesn't hurt Gaara and hugs the small boy back.

"Oh, thank you, Ga-chan. I'm glad Ruka's back but she going to need a bath before I can give her back, okay? After all, a dog had her in its mouth."

As much as Gaara wants to hold Ruka, he knows his mother is right. Ruka needs a bath like really bad. She smells funny too! "Hey mommy, can I help you clean Ruka up? Please?" Gaara cracks a big smile when Iruka nods his head.

In the background, Kakashi sits there studying them. If he doesn't know any better, it's like Iruka and Gaara have been mother and child since…well, when the child was born instead of two days. They're both something else, especially Iruka. Grabbing the dirty stuff toy, Kakashi places it next to Iruka's face and looks between the two. "Iruka, by any chance are you and Ruka related? Both dolphins and have a scar across their nose. Does this run in the family or something? I'm curious to know."

Kakashi blinks when Gaara takes Ruka out of his hand and actually uses the stuff toy to whack him over the head. Boy sure has some guts Kakashi thinks. He reaches out to take the stuff toy back but Iruka slaps his hand away.

"Behave will you?"

"What? I'm the victim here and I'm the one being prosecuted?"

"Please Kakashi, it's just a harmless soft toy."

"I don't know, Iruka. I might need to go to the hospital for this. A concussion maybe, I don't know…everything starting to become a blur to me" Kakashi dramatically places his hand over his forehead and trying to look faintish.

"Is this coming from a Jounin, the Great Copy-Nin, at that? Boy, I would just hate for our enemies to get a hold of this information and use it against us. I'm picturing it right know. A bunch of stuff toys being thrown at some of our strongest and greatest ninjas ever. Each of them fall victim to this devastating attack. Oh, the image! It's too horrible and I don't even want to think about if they're able to get a hold of those live-size ones! Imagine how many people one of those can take out? I think our village might be completely wiped out if such a thing were to happen to us. I pray it doesn't."

"You don't have to be so sarcastic you know."

"Well, you don't have to over exaggerate on the small of things. Come on Ga-chan, let's go get Ruka nice and clean, hmm?" Both Iruka and Gaara go into the kitchen and leaving Kakashi to ponder about a certain Chuunin.

_**With Sasuke and Naruto**_

"It was really nice of her to make us lunch, wasn't it?" Naruto rubs his belly as he talks.

Half way through their mission, Naruto seemed to have completely forgotten about this morning incident. Something Sasuke's not going to remind the blond of. He nods his head in agreement. "Yeah, she was. Has some nice taste too."

"Hey Sasuke, those flowers we just planted…what do they mean? Do they even have a meaning attached to them?"

"All flowers do. The white lilies mean purity and sweetness and the white lilacs mean youthful innocence."

"Does anything white make it pure and innocence?"

"Yeah, pretty much." They both continue walking towards Iruka's house with Naruto starting random conversations. Random conversations even Sasuke joined in on much to Naruto's surprise and delight.

"YO BRATS!" a voice calls out from behind them. Sasuke and Naruto quickly turn around only to see the most perverted person, Jiraiya, standing there. Jiraiya walks over to them and places his big hands on each of their heads. Sasuke naturally shoves the offending hand off. "Can I assume you two are heading over to Iruka Umino's place?"

Naruto blinks and tries to move the big hand off his head at the same time. "Yeah, what's it to you?"

"Well, I just so happen to be heading over there. I figure all three of us can head over there together." Jiraiya immediately gets two very curious stares. He's trying his best to act calm and nonchalant but these brats don't really seem to be buying it. It's like they don't trust him! He feels hurt inside. Well, not really but whatever. Of course he's not going to tell them the real reason why he's heading over to their former sensei's house.

_**Flashback**_

He just came back from the Sand Village and the old hag already wanted to see him. Oh well, he has something he needs to tell her anyway. Kill two birds with one stone here. So he makes his way to her office and doesn't even bother to knock on the door when he enters. "You rang your holiness."

"What did I tell you about knocking?"

"Um, don't remember."

Tsunade glares at the man before her. He's always been a pain in the ass and it's just her luck she's stuck with him. "Bring any useful news?" She watches as his face became hard and serious making her face to mirror his.

"Pretty much throughout my entire stay they've been searching for Gaara. They even have a few Anbus searching for him. However sometime middle afternoon yesterday, I noticed the search for the boy cooled down immensely. However there's still no sign of the boy in the village. I don't know where he is."

"That's because he's in our village."

"What?"

"He's in our village. His sister came to me a few days ago and asked if I could allow Gaara temporarily stay here. I told her yes."

"Really now, that's very interesting. She acted as if she had no clue where he was. She's even assigned to a search team to look for him. Although, I got the feeling she knew something but wasn't telling. Did she tell you why?"

"No and I'm really starting to wish I did" she sighing heavenly, something she been doing for the past few days.

"So where is he right now?"

Tsunade sighs yet again before answering "You might want to sit down because things are going to get more complicated and it's long." She waits for Jiraiya to sit and once he does, she goes on "Yesterday Naruto came across an old man. An old man that I now know is from the Sand Village. Anyway, Naruto decided to help the old man out by carry his heavy basket. And as a 'thank you' gift, the old man gave Naruto a scroll. The idiot thought the scroll could help him defeat Sasuke so he learned it. You know how those two are. I'll skip a bit to the part where Naruto thought it was a great idea to test out the jutsu out on Gaara who happen to be near." She watches at Jiraiya absorbs all this.

Jiraiya does not like where this is going at all. He knows Naruto has some rivalry with Sasuke but to actually go this far? This doesn't sound at all like Naruto. However there are more important things to worry about right now then Naruto. "What end up happening to Gaara?"

"Gaara's fine…he's just not himself. Apparently the scroll cast him int to 3 year old child." Tsunade sees Jiraiya opening his mouth and beats him to the punch, "Before you say anything, the scroll quickly burned up after Naruto performed it so I can't even take a look at it to see if I can make a counter jutsu to it."

Jiraiya looks down at the floor with a thoughtfully expression before bringing it back up to Tsunade. "That still doesn't answer my question, where is he?"

Tsunade raises an eyebrow at Jiraiya's tone of voice but she can't blame him. It's a serious matter. "Well, Team 7 brought Gaara to me to see if I can fix it which I couldn't. All Gaara did was cry. We just couldn't get him to calm down which was something we needed to. Although the seal on him wasn't affecting, we still couldn't chance it. Sakura and I tried to get him to calm down and to stop crying but nothing worked on him. It wasn't until when Iruka walked in to turn in some reports, did Gaara stop crying."

"Iruka?"

"Iruka Umino."

"Ah, Naruto's first sensei. Naruto talks pretty highly of him."

"Of course Naruto should, Iruka is Academy's best teacher. Where was I? Oh! Once Iruka walked into the room, Gaara just stopped crying. I mean he was crying for an hour but takes one look at Iruka and there are no more tears. We all watched in fascination as Gaara goes up to Iruka and starts calling him…well, mommy" Tsunade tries her best not to laugh at the memory. She fails though.

"Mommy? Isn't Iruka a guy?"

"Well, it didn't seem to matter to Gaara and surprising enough Iruka didn't seem to care either. He accepted the role without any hesitates. It's why I placed Iruka in charge of Gaara along with Team 7. I told Kakashi, Sasuke and Naruto to pack some their belongings because they'll be living under the same roof as Iruka and Gaara for the time being. Sakura, of course, will be there during the day but not at nights. I don't want her mother worrying over the fact her daughter is in a house full of males. Save myself a headache there."

There's a moment of silence before Jiraiya breaks it. "You mean to tell me you left Gaara in the care of a Chuunin and a couple of Genins? Granted they have Kakashi with them but still! What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking what was best for Gaara. Besides could Jounins and Anbus really take care of Gaara in his current state? A child? You know as well I do they can't. Protect him yes, but for anything else no. Iruka just seemed to fit the bill. I know Gaara is in good hands."

"Why not just assign some Jounins and Anbus along with Iruka to look after Gaara then?"

"The Jounins are all out on missions as well as the Anbus. You know there's something special about Sasuke and Naruto, I'm sure they can hand whatever is thrown their way. They're strong. Plus, they Sakura backing them up. She's the brains of the group."

"Yes, but still not enough to hand this."

"That's where you come in, Jiraiya. Having Kakashi and you near the boy should be enough. You two have very high reputations and then there's Iruka, Sasuke and Naruto. Besides tomorrow, two Anbus should be coming back from their mission and I'll assign them to keeping an eye on the situation at a distance."

Jiraiya is relieved to hear that. "One question, how am I supposed to tell them I've been assigned to look after Gaara as well? It's not like I can just go up to them and say 'I'm here to help out'. They're going to get suspicious and I don't know if you want them knowing the whole story. Or at least what we know so far."

"Well…not yet, anyway. You're just going to have to think quick and make something up. You can also just not answer their questions. Tell them to come see me if they're that curious."

"You'll actually tell them?"

"Ah, you know how busy a Hokage can get?" Tsunade smirks. "The only one I want you telling is Kakashi so he has a better understanding and can look after Gaara better. As well about the two Anbus I'll be assigning so he doesn't freak out. If it gets to dangerous then I'll assign more Anbus for the task even if I have to drag them from their current missions. Mind you, I will still have Iruka with Gaara though."

"You really want Iruka to be with Gaara. Why?"

"Just. Now if you excuse me, I have other things to do. These reports don't sign themselves you know."

'This old hag' Jiraiya thinks as he leaves the office. He just got home and now he has to deal with this? He hopes Iruka is everything Naruto's always talked about. 'I hope this all goes over well…'

_**End of Flashback**_

"Come on, let's go already." The older man doesn't even wait for the boys as he starts walking off towards Iruka's direction. Or at least thinks it's in the direction he's walking in.

"Hey, wait up you old man!" Naruto yells out, curious to know what Jiraiya wants from Iruka's house. "Do you even _know_ Iruka-sensei?"

**TBC**

**Shinycry** - I hope you guys like this chapter and please tell me if anything was out of place or seemed too crappy. Feel free to ask questions about something. Ah, I'm too tired to write the day off. I'll do that for the next chapter. Thank you for those who reviewed. I mean it, thank you guys! Your reviews always make feel better and that I'm just not doing a shitty job at this. Lol Remember I just need one review to say they want me to continue and I well. Again sorry for its lateness. Later…


	9. Chapter 9

**shinycry**- it's not a dream…I'm actually updating this story! God, I forgot how long it's been since I last typed one of these. Shame on me, big time. Oh well, I won't waste your time on this note, I'll let you get to the story!

**Disclaimer**- shinycry does not own Naruto…

**Ch. 9**

"Why won't you answer my questions?" a fuming blond demands.

"Huh? What questions?" the old man answers back which only fuels the blond even more up.

The dark haired boy of the group just simply rolls his eyes. For the pass ten minutes, Naruto's been trying to figure out why Jiraiya needs to go to Iruka's house. The blonde's been asking a bunch of questions nonstop. Usually Sasuke finds Naruto's questions to be stupid, annoying, or just plain both. However in this case, he's actually finding himself curious to know some of the answers. Well, actually just the important one and it's why the older man needs to go to Iruka's house. After all, did Jiraiya even know Iruka at all? Sasuke pretty sure he doesn't. But back to the matter at hand, the old man is still refusing to answer any questions leaving both boys in the dark.

Of course Sasuke knows it has _something_ to do with Gaara that much is obvious. It just makes sense. Unfortunately, his teammate lacks common sense needed to figure at least that much out. If Naruto had, he could have been asking question dealing with Gaara from the start. Sasuke figures after Jiraiya got back from wherever he was at, Tsunade probably informed him of the situation. Either Jiraiya volunteered to help out or Tsunade ordered him to help 'babysit', for a lick of a better term, Gaara. 'Just what is going on' Sasuke silently wonders.

"GAH! I know you're old and wrinkly but you're not deaf!"

"I am not old or wrinkly, brat!"

"Have you looked in the mirror lately, old man?"

"I don't need to look in one to know I'm a stud." Naruto gives the old man a face like he just grew another head and an ugly ass tail or something. He seriously doesn't know whether he should gag or laugh at Jiraiya's statement. Last time he checked, Jiraiya is most definitely not on the stud's list for Konoha. If anyone's on the stud list, it's most definitely Sasuke without a doubt.

'…there's NO way in HELL I just called that bastard a stud right now! NO freaking way! I mean, compared to the old man, sure Sasuke is a total stud…AH! I did it again! I blame the stupid old man for this! What in the world am I thin-' "Hey, you're changing the subject again on me!" yells Naruto.

"Who? Me?"

"Dammit, just tell me already!"

"Huh, tell you what?"

"Ah! Not even Sasuke is this difficult!" shouts Naruto who jumps on Jiraiya's back, hoping to get on the older man's nerves. A little pay back for getting on his nerves! 'I mean, what is so difficult about answering a few questions…?' the blonde silently reasons.

Sasuke's in the middle of a thought when he hears Naruto's comment. Personally, he doesn't think he's difficult. Perhaps not the easiest person to persuade but he's not difficult. But whatever, he doesn't care what the idiot thinks of him. He really doesn't. What he does care about is his sanity and Naruto's loud voice is starting to get on _his_ nerves. He has no idea how Jiraiya can stand it and he's the one the loud voice is being directed to. "Why don't you leave him alone? It's obvious he not going tell us anything."

"Huh? But Sasuke, aren't you curious why he's heading towards Iruka-sensei's house?"

"Not really. I don't even care if he ends up staying at Iruka-sensei's house." Sure, Sasuke wants to give the old man a break from Naruto but he never said anything about himself. He's hoping for some sort of reaction that betrays the older man.

When Naruto hears this, he explodes. "What? He can't say over at Iruka-sensei's house! No way, I won't allow it!"

"Isn't that for Iruka to decide?" the old hermit asks who's desperately trying to get the monkey, aka Naruto, off his back.

Sasuke doesn't skip a beat, "So you are staying over at Iruka-sensei's house then?"

Sometimes ignorance is bliss and Jiraiya's finding it to be very true. He knows the Uchiha boy is sharp so unlike his teammate who continuing to make him deaf with his loud voice of his. 'I'll just have to be more careful'. Changing the subject yet again, Jiraiya asks "Speaking of Iruka, where is his house? Shouldn't we be near?"

"I'm not going to answer you because you haven't been answering my questions" Naruto detaches himself from the hermit's back. "I'm not stupid. The only reason why you're going to Iruka-sensei's house is because Gaara's there." Both Jiraiya and Sasuke blink at the blond as he continues, "I don't know what is going on but I'm telling you right now, if Iruka-sensei was placed in any danger and the Hokage knew about it…I'll never forgive her or you for that matter." With being said, Naruto marches off towards a two story house that comes into view.

Marching behind Naruto is Sasuke who sends a warning glare to the older man. All he knows is something is obviously going on and Jiraiya obviously knows a lot more than any of them. 'Just what did this dope get me into…' he thinks as he looks up at the house that more than likely got itself another occupant.

After a moment of watching the boys' back, Jiraiya follows them towards the house. Now more than ever, he's dying to meet this Iruka person that everyone seems to love. 'Things are going to start getting pretty interesting from here on out…' However Jiraiya doesn't know if that's a good thing or not.

"There you go, Ga-chan! Ruka is all nice and clean now. Here" Iruka hands the small stuff dolphin back to eager little hands. Once Ruka is safely return to her friend, she's brought into a big hug. Looking at the scene makes Iruka's smile widen. He knows Gaara was worried about his stuff dolphin when he was washed it. Gaara kept asking if it's really okay to wash her and told him not to hold her under water for so long because she might drown. He had to laugh at the last one, it was just too cute. Of course he told Gaara that dolphins live underwater so Ruka going to be just fine.

But then _he_ had to walk in and make a comment about dolphins can't live outside of water. When Gaara heard that, his mouth fell open with a little grasp. Then his eyes started to water up because he thought him hurting his friend by 'making' her live outside of water. Iruka seriously wishes he has a kunai to throw at that man sometimes. For ten minutes, he tried telling the little boy Ruka's fine and dolphins need air to breathe anyway. The boy looked so confused when he told him that. So Kakashi took it upon himself to help out with the problem he created.

*****_**Flashback**_*****

"You know, dolphins are just like people" Kakashi says from the countertop behind them. Iruka isn't so sure where Kakashi is heading with this but decides to let the man talk, at least for the mean time.

"What do you mean? Me and Ruka are same?"

"Not exactly the same but yeah, somewhat. It's true that dolphins live in water but that doesn't mean they breathe in water. They actually breathe in air like us."

"Really?" questions the boy who quick glances at his friend.

"Yup. They come up to the surface to breath air then they go back underwater where they hold their breath. Did you know they can hold their breath up to six to seven minutes? Us humans can only hold our breath for a minute or two, perhaps more but don't try it."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Because mommy Iruka would kill me, that's why." Kakashi smirks behind his mask when he sees Iruka's face expression. "Mothers can be so over-protective sometimes. They get scary when they're mad, right Iruka?"

"I don't know Kakashi because I don't go out of my way to make them mad like some people do. Now go and do me a favor by taking out some ground beef from the freezer. We'll have spaghetti for dinner." Iruka says as he opens a drawer to fetch a towel to dry the stuff toy. He doesn't want Gaara getting all wet when he hugs his friend and making puddles all over the place. That's an accident just waiting to happen with a house full of kids, well, with the exception of him and Kakashi.

Speaking of Kakashi, he glances over in the other man's direction only to find him with the package of frozen ground beef in front of his face making 'mow' sounds to Gaara who's laughing. He doesn't know how Gaara thinks it's funny but…well, okay maybe he does. When Gaara starts to make 'mow' sounds too, Iruka can't help but laugh. It's a funny sight to see as well as adorable. 'Who knew Kakashi has a cute side to him?' he thinks with a small smile as he continues to dry up Ruka. At least Kakashi remembered to take out the ground beef.

*****_**End of Flashback**_*****

"Come on let's go back to the family room. Sakura should almost be done with putting away your clothes." With that, Iruka grabs Gaara's hand and leads him out of the kitchen with Kakashi following closely behind him. Once they in the family room, they see Sakura coming down the stairs.

"Ah Iruka-sensei, I'm all done! I arranged all of them by color and then neatly placed them in the draws. I also hung whatever needed to be hanged."

"Thank you Sakura, I appreciate you doing this even though you don't have to" Iruka says as he lifts Gaara and places him on the couch seeing as Gaara is having a hard time trying to climb the couch while holding Ruka.

After coming down the stairs, Sakura goes straight to the couch where Iruka and Gaara are sitting. She pets Ruka on the head and says "But I want to sensei! Besides it was so much fun, I even know what Gaara can wear tomorrow." She then lifts Gaara onto her lap and starts playing with him and Ruka. Gaara doesn't really seem to mind, the pink thingy is really growing on him. Plus she's nice to Ruka, unlike one-eye over there who's reading something.

"Kakashi, can you please put your book away?"

"Why?"

"What do you mean 'why'? Because there are children around that's why!"

"Not good enough."

"What? I think it's a very good reason! I'll ask again, Kakashi please put your book away." Iruka pleads. He doesn't care if the man reads those types of books. All he cares about is the fact Gaara is starting to stare at the book and Sakura is trying her best not to look but occasionally glances over from time to time. Probably due to the fact she's use to it but still curious to know what's on it that makes her teacher read them every day. He knows curiosity killed the cat but in this case, curiosity is going to kill their innocent minds. Even though he doesn't really know what's in the book but it has a NC-17 rating on it. There has to be _something _to make it have that rating, right?

While Iruka continues to panic over lost innocence, Kakashi's studies him. He can tell the other teacher really wants him to put down his book. But it's just getting to the good part! How can Iruka expect him to put it down when the heroine of the story is going to dive into a pool of water in a white shirt? He'll be insane to stop now. But looking at the man and his damn cute pleading eyes…er, scratch out. Kakashi meant damn pleading eyes that look adorable. Wait, no, just plain pleading eyes…that look, shit. Damn Iruka for getting in his way of his entertainment. "Fine but I want pudding for dessert. Make that vanilla pudding."

Blink. Blink. Blink. Iruka doesn't know whether or not to take Kakashi serious but as he looks at him he can tell other man isn't joking. Blink. Kakashi wants pudding, vanilla pudding. "Let me get this straight, I have to make you vanilla pudding in order for you to stop reading your" pauses to cover Gaara's ears and shares a look with Sakura who understands and covers her ears too, "porn. Are you making fun of me here?" When Iruka removes his hands from Gaara's ears, Sakura does the same.

"I think it's a fair deal. Don't you think so Sakura?"

Sakura hangs her head down in shame. Sometimes she just can't take her teacher anywhere without him embarrassing her. She can't believe he wants pudding! She didn't even know her sensei likes pudding. He must love it enough to exchange it for his precious 'book'. "Iruka-sensei, I've learned to just go with his crazy mood swings."

"Crazy…mood…swings…?"

"But why do I have to make him pudding? Either way, he wins!"

"Crazy mood swings….?"

"I know Iruka-sensei, but this is Kakashi-sensei. If it counts, I'm surprise he's willing to part with his book over food."

"Crazy mood swings?"

"Really? Come to think of it, I'm surprise too. I thought he would have come up with something better."

"I'm in the room and crazy mood swings?"

"And out of all the things, vanilla pudding. I mean, I like vanilla pudding but still…vanilla pudding?"

"What's wrong with vanilla pudding? And what crazy mood swings?"

"I know, Sakura. I thought he was joking but he seemed pretty serious about the vanilla pudding.

Well, if it's just vanilla pudding then I guess I don't mind."

"Well, I'm glad to know you realize what a great deal it is. Now can we go back to me having crazy mood swings?"

"Hey Iruka-sensei, you don't think if you always have vanilla pudding on hand, Kakashi-sensei would stop reading his book completely?"

"I don't love vanilla pudding that much."

"I don't know, Sakura. I don't exactly want to be the cause of Kakashi letting himself go with all that vanilla pudding."

"…letting myself go…?"

"You have a good point there, Iruka-sensei. Considering how much he reads his book would mean he would be eating nonstop. I don't exactly want a fat sensei."

"…I just wanted some vanilla pudding…What's wrong with you two?"

"Oh well, it was a good thought though Sakura. So it's decided, we'll have vanilla pudding for dessert. How does that sound, Ga-chan?"

For the most part, Gaara been watching and wondering what this vanilla pudding is. He's never had vanilla pudding before but if his mommy makes it, then he'll eat it. After all, why would his mommy make something that might taste bad? With that thought, he nods at Iruka. He can't wait for him and Ruka to taste it!

Turning his head, Iruka glances at Kakashi. "You can put away your book now, Kakashi. I'll make you your vanilla pudding for dessert."

"That's nice to know but the offer expired not too long ago" Kakashi says as he sits back to get more comfortable on his chair. He starts flipping through his book, trying to find where he last left off. He was trying to be nice here and they go and make fun of him. Blah, who needs them when he has his books?

Getting up, Iruka strolls over to Kakashi and sits on the armrest of his chair. Of course this doesn't go unnoticed by the older man but he continues to read his book.

"Kakashi?"

"Hmm?" a page is flipped.

"Would you still like vanilla pudding for dessert?"

"The offer expired" another page is turn.

"I know, I heard you the first time. But would you still like vanilla pudding?"

"I wouldn't want you to go out of your way for me" some more flipping.

"No, it's fine with me. I don't mind."

"You don't?" pausing in the middle of flipping a page, Kakashi looks up to see a smiling face.

"No, I don't. So if you want vanilla pudding, I'll make it for you."

"I'm still going to read my book, you know" even though he says that, he closes his book. He's not putting it away because Iruka's smiling at him. Oh no, he just lost interest in the book is all. Besides he's read this book already, has nothing to do with Iruka's warm smile.

"I know" with that Iruka gets off the armrest and goes to sit down next to Sakura and Gaara. Right when he's about start a conversation, he hears the door open followed by a loud "Iruka-sensei, we're home!"

Of course he gets up to go greet the boys and ask how their day went. Or at least that was the plan until the white haired man who's companying them comes into view. To say Iruka is surprises is an understatement as he continues to stare at the man who's known as one of the legendary three, Jiraiya. "Um…" Iruka doesn't know what to say. He's never really met the man before but he's heard about him from everyone especially Naruto.

"Sorry Iruka-sensei, he wanted to know where you lived" Naruto comments as he walks over to the loveseat and pops himself down on it. He's tried and annoyed. Nothing a good cup of ramen can't cure but it's going to have wait. He first wants to know what the hell is going on. "So he ended up following us like a lost dog." Naruto snickers as he notices Sasuke walking over and sitting down next him. He doesn't mind.

Looking at the blonde with a distasteful look for insulting him, Jiraiya declares "I'm not a dog."

"You're right, more like an old pervert hermit if you ask me" Naruto says in a matter-of-fact tone.

Blinking and knowing Naruto knows better than that, Iruka scowls him. "Naruto, what have I said about talking to your elders like that?"

"Um…is that a rhetorical question, Iruka-sensei?"

"Wow, dope, you know a big word. And here I thought you never paid attention in class."

"What do you mean? I never paid attention in class."

"That's not something to be proud of Naruto!" Sakura frowns at her teammate. And here she thought she only has Kakashi-sensei to worry about embarrassing her. Naruto has to add himself into the mix. Only Sasuke doesn't embarrass her as well as Iruka-sensei. Thank goodness for them or the other two would have driven her insane.

"I don't hear anything, I don't hear anything." Iruka repeats while rubbing his forehead. After a few more times, he stops and turns his attention to Jiraiya. Putting on a smile like nothing's wrong, he replies "You wanted to know where I live? May I ask why?"

"What? I can't visit my son?" Jiraiya says proudly, going towards Iruka with his arms out like he's going to give him a big hug which he does. Iruka would have moved out of the way but he was too shock to move. Even as Jiraiya continues to hug him, he stands there frozen, as does the rest of the people in the room. Gaara just blinks.

"Does that make you my grandpa?" the little one asks, curious eyes blinking at the older man who's hugging his mommy.

"Why yes it does!"

Looking at his mommy to the old thing, then back again to his mommy, he noticed something. "But you no look like mommy at all though, why is that?"

"That's because Iruka gets his looks from his mother."

"What's a pretty lady doing with you?" the boy is obviously confused. They don't look anything alike. Of course he knows he and mommy don't look alike either…but that's okay. He still likes his mommy very much.

Everyone sweat drops, well, expect for Naruto who's too busy holding his stomach from laughing too hard. Sakura has to hit him in the back of his head to make him stop laughing. "Even if it's true, it's rude to laugh." A few feet away, someone mumbles how it's also rude to be blunt about things making Sakura blush with embarrassment.

Jiraiya scratches the back of his head with a sheepish grin on his face before replying "I got lucky?" all the while thinking how blunt this child is. He then turns his attention to the man he still has an arm around. "Speaking of getting lucky, is there anymore grandchildren I should know about? And where is the father?" Then he looks at Kakashi's direction, he starts laughing. "Don't tell me Kakashi here is the father?"

If it hadn't been for the arm around him, Iruka would have dropped died with shock. Not only does the much older man claim to be his 'father' but is implying him and Kakashi…they had…. Well, we know how babies are made. Him and Kakashi, Kakashi and him, no matter how it's said, it still doesn't sound right. Oh, and the fact it's impossible! Two men can't have babies! Unless Jiraiya thinks he's a…woman, a woman who is cable of giving birth? Just because a small child is calling him 'mommy' does not mean he's a woman! 'Oh my god, do I look like a woman, is that it? I mean I know I'm not the manliest man out there but still! This is ridiculous!' a panic Iruka thinks. While Iruka continues to have mental breakdown, Naruto and his other two teammates have the most unusual faces. They look like they just bit into the sourest lemon known to mankind.

Once he gets over his disgust, Naruto questions the older man with "What have _you_ been smoking?" He pauses to look at Gaara, "Don't believe this weirdo, Gaara. Iruka-sensei would never, never hook up with a pervert like Kakashi-sensei! He has taste, non-perverted taste!"

"Are you calling me a liar, kid?"

"Well…yeah!"

"Oh…. I suppose that was a bit too much, wasn't it?"

"So you're not my grandpa?" Gaara just really needs to know because this 'grandpa' is too much like one-eye over there who's giving his mommy a really weird look. It's the same look he gave his mommy this morning when he was combining his mommy's hair.

"Sorry kid but I'm not."

Gaara sighs in utter relief which causes the white haired to make a face. 'How insulting' he can't help but think. He can't believe the manners on this kid. He's been hanging out with Naruto for too long. Getting over it, Jiraiya walks over to Gaara and ruffles his red hair. "But just because I'm not doesn't mean you can't call me grandpa. I don't mind."

"What? If you want to call him something Gaara then call him old pervert, old man, or nasty old man!"

"Naruto!"

"What? It's true Iruka-sensei!"

**TBC**

**shinycry**- um, I'm very much aware it's been a loooooooong time since I last updated this story. Hell, I'm not even sure anyone going to read it anymore because of that. Surprising enough, I got an email saying if I was ever going to finish this and…well, I felt bad. It's just because I got lost on what I wanted to do/go with this story but now I have an idea. And sorry if it kind of took me this long to figure it out. I hope I haven't lost all my readers for this story. I'll do what I can do for this story. Thanks for reading and review please! Even if it's cursing at my laziness…


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